


Septem Diebus

by Verlor3n



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: All of the relationships are practically a given at the beginning of the story, Angst, Character Death, Depression, F/F, Final Goodbyes, Hinata meets with all the schools he's played against, I'm not sorry, If i'm nice?, M/M, Maybe I am, OiHina - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Seven days to live, Well - Freeform, based off a tiktok, fluff?, hinaoi, holy shit, maybe? - Freeform, most of them - Freeform, oof, that sucks, the angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:54:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23472019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verlor3n/pseuds/Verlor3n
Summary: Seven days. Hinata Shouyou has seven days until his untimely death. Hinata Shouyou has seven days to say goodbye to his friends and family. Hinata Shouyou has seven days to visit rival schools and say goodbye to them. Hinata Shouyou has seven days to tell Oikawa Tooru he loves him.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Azumane Asahi/Nishinoya Yuu, Hinata Shouyou & Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou/Oikawa Tooru, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Shimizu Kiyoko/Yachi Hitoka, Tendou Satori/Ushijima Wakatoshi, Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 128
Kudos: 336





	1. 7

**Author's Note:**

> Happiness? Don't know her, sorry. 
> 
> I'm not sorry for anything that I've done here. Death is great. We love it. I didn't cry thinking about this, no. You're imagining it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Would you all mind if we met up at some point this week?"

Seven days

\--

Hinata Shouyou woke up to his alarm, which, for some reason, he still had going. It’s not like it mattered whether or not he was going to wake up, since in a couple of days, he would fall victim to eternal slumber. But even so, Hinata forced himself out of his bed and into his school uniform, shoveling his breakfast into his mouth and ran out of his home. 

School was a little duller now that Hinata knew he wasn’t going to graduate. His friends started to notice Hinata’s sadness and did their best to cheer him up. They missed their ray of sunshine. 

“Hinata!” Kageyama shouted from across the hallway, waving down the ginger lazily. “Practice will be going on a little later than usual today. Daichi told me when I passed by him earlier.”

“Oh?” Hinata’s mood perked up a bit, knowing he’d be with his friends for a little longer. “How long?”

“About an hour,” Kageyama responded. “Class is about to start, hurry your ass back.”

“Shut up, Kageyama! When did you start caring about getting to class on time?” Hinata mocked with a cheeky grin, sprinting away from his angry teammate. “Please don’t kill me I’m so sorry I take it back!”

“I’ll rip out your hair, dumbass!” 

Both boys made it back to class with a minute to spare, the teacher walking in to see their heavy pants and angry glares. “Boys, if you two are going to act like this the entire time, I might as well just send you outside.”

“Sorry!” they both apologized, but their playful rage continued on.

Hinata looked away from Kageyama and frowned, his depressive cloud taking over his mind again. Kageyama noticed his expression and sighed, promising himself to send the boy better tosses during practice.

\--

“I hope everyone has a good break! If you need to take remedial classes, don’t forget to come back on Monday!” their teacher said, packing up her belongings with the rest of the students. Many hurried out of the class and down to their lockers, changing shoes and then running home. It was the start of winter break, no one was going to spend too much time wandering about the school.

Hinata sat at his desk for a moment more, taking in the smaller details of the class that he hadn’t noticed earlier in the year. Apparently, there was a small scratch on the side of the chalkboard where someone likely scraped into. Hinata thoughts drifted from the chalkboard to his volleyball games, remembering his promise to say goodbye to the teams he'd gone up against as well.

“Shiratorizawa, then Fukurodani... Then Nekoma and Aoba Johsai,” Hinata thought aloud in a hushed voice, listing off the schools he could remember playing against. “How am I going to get the coaches to allow me to practice with them??”

His teacher took a glance back at Hinata, pausing mid step out into the hallway. 

“Hinata,” she called out, knocking on the sliding door. “Are you okay?”

“Hmm? Oh! Yeah, I’m fine! I just spaced out is all,” Hinata truthfully lied, rubbing the back of his head apologetically. “I’ll be out in a second! Thank you.”

“Have fun at practice.”

“Goodbye!” Hinata watched as his teacher walked down the hallway and around a corner, disappearing from his sight. “Goodbye....”

“Oi! Dumbass! What are you still sitting there for?” Kageyama poked his head into the classroom and was almost tempted to smack the boy, but chose not to. 

“Sorry sorry, I spaced,” Hinata laughed.

“You do that a lot.”

“You know what?! I’ll beat you to the club room even _with_ the time I need to pack up!” Hinata watched as Kageyama took the challenge and ran off, leaving him alone. “Oh my god, I can’t even believe you took that seriously.”

Hinata quickly shoved all of his notebooks and stationary items into his bag, pushing in his chair and hurried out of the class. He caught his hand on the door, looking back at the empty chairs and freshly cleaned chalkboard. He was going to miss it, strangely. 

...  
  


“HA!” Kageyama pounded his hand on the clubroom door, kneeling over to catch a breath. Hinata was close behind and clearly mad; he was only a couple feet late too. “I beat you, you runt.”

“I’ll beat you in changing and going to the gym!” Hinata declared, kicking open the door and dropped his bag onto the mats. “Whoever wins has to get the other one two meat buns after practice!”

“All right, bet!” Kageyama did the same as Hinata and ripped off his shirt, barely folding it before throwing it onto a shelf. 

Hinata was already in his pants and at the door, Kageyama picking up speed and chased down Hinata while still pulling up his own shorts. 

“You’ll never beat me!” Hinata cackled, leaping from the top of the staircase. “You’d better have enough money for those meat buns!”

“I’d _kiss trash_ before getting you anything!” Kageyama flew down the stairs as well, a single step away from passing the ginger. 

“BOYS!” Daichi’s voice froze the two first years in place, both already sweating and waiting for absolute punishment. “Can you both get ready and go to the gym like _normal_ guys? No shouting? No racing? Just.. A casual walk to the gym?”

“Daichi, let them do whatever,” Suga cut in, leaning against the gym doors. “After all, they seem to enjoy it either way.”

Their captain sighed, agreeing with Suga and let the two off the hook. Hinata strolled into the gym first, beating Kageyama and reminding him about the meat buns. Kageyama, albeit pissed that Hinata got in first, agreed. The small bet made his friend happy, so Kageyama couldn’t just refuse. 

\--

Their practice ended and everyone headed back to the club room together, Hinata drifting to the back of the pack. He fiddled with the ends of his fingernails, accidentally breaking one in the process.

“Hey guys?” Hinata spoke up, halting all movement from his teammates. “Would you all mind if we met up at some point this week? Since it’s winter break, I wanted to see all of you!”

“I would love that, Hinata,” Suga was the first to agree, putting his practice shirt into his bag. “Where were you thinking of going?”

“Just a little ramen shop around the corner,” Hinata answered.

“I’d also enjoy going!” Tanaka and Nishinoya both said, wrapping their arms around the first year. “Who wouldn’t want to spend some time with their kohai?”

“Do I have a choice?” Tsukishima whispered, Yamaguchi lightly punching the blond’s arm. “Okay okay, we’ll go. I’m free Sunday.”

“If everyone is free Sunday, we can meet then,” Daichi waited for Suga to finish packing up his belongings, leaning against the back wall and waved Tsukishima and Yamaguchi goodbye. “We’ll figure out a time tomorrow.”

“Awesome!” Hinata’s eyes lit up with excitement, his whole body radiating energy and sunlight. “I’m already excited!!”

“You seemed pretty down today, though.. Is there a reason why you proposed this?” Suga asked before leaving, noticing a heavy weight suddenly slam down upon Hinata’s shoulders. 

“Oh. Uh, well, nothing necessarily... I just wanted to meet up with everyone outside of practice. We haven’t really done anything like that outside of games,” Hinata didn’t really lie here, per se, but he couldn’t actually tell them the truth either. “I just thought, since it’s the break, why not have a little team bonding? We only have practice four times this week out of the two weeks we have off. It would be sad if we didn’t see each other for so long!”

“You have a point,” Suga accepted Hinata’s answer and left the club with a smile and wave, leaving Hinata and Kageyama by themselves.

“You were off the entire day. There’s no way you were upset about not seeing us for two weeks,” Kageyama said bluntly. He noticed the slight twitch in Hinata’s shoulders and frowned. “Is there something you’re leaving out?”

“Nothing! Nothing at all,” Hinata lied, scratching the base of his neck. “I don’t know, maybe I’ve gotten too attached to everyone. You all feel like family, you know?”

“Mm.” Kageyama grunted. “Come on, let’s get going. It’s supposed to snow this evening.”

“I’ll beat you to the store??”

“If I lose another race, I’ll run out of money,” Kageyama grabbed the top of Hinata’s head and dragged him out of the room, turning out the lights and closing the pre-locked door. “You still want those meat buns?”

“Duh?” Hinata laughed. 

He and Kageyama walked down to coach Ukai’s store, ordering three meat buns-two for Hinata and one for Kageyama-before saying goodbye. 

“Goodbye, coach!” Hinata waved at his coach and exited through the double doors, biting into one of his meat buns. “Thanks, Kageyama.”

“Don’t expect me to do it again. I’ll beat you next time you propose something like this,” Kageyama rolled his eyes, but hid a smile behind his own bun. “The only reason why you won is because you cheated.”

“HUH?!” Hinata choked on his food, a vein popping from his forehead. “No I didn’t! You just suck!!”

“ _Say that again I dare you, asshole_ ,” Kageyama glared down at the ginger and clearly asserted his place in their friendship, Hinata muttering unintelligible things into his food. “See ya, Hinata.”

“Goodbye!”

Hinata watched Kageyama walk the opposite direction from him, the smile Hinata had grown wearing away. He looked down at the second bun he’d gotten from Kageyama and held it close to his chest, holding back the tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

...  
  


Hinata arrived home about five minutes after he left Kageyama, eating the last bite from his meat bun. He took off his shoes and threw away the bag his food was held in, letting out a hefty yawn and strolled into his room.

“I have food for you in the refrigerator if you’re hungry, Shouyou,” his mother poked her head into Hinata’s room and looked at her son, who’d flopped down onto his bed to hide the tears he failed to contain. “Shouyou?”

“Ah!” Hinata said, although muffled. “Sorry, I’m just a little tired. We played three on three this whole evening... I’m not that hungry either; I’ll eat it if I want to eat later this evening.”

“Don’t stay up too late then, sweetie,” she closed his door and left, entering her own room and set herself to sleep.

“Keeping things from my own mother is challenging,” Hinata thought to himself, lifting his face from his pillow. There was a face-ish thing on it from his tears and snot. Hinata laughed. “What in the hecky is that?”

The alarm clock to Hinata’s left read “ten-fifteen”, the ginger shutting his eyes to block out the light. “I forgot to take a shower...”

He’d do that in the morning... For now, he needed to figure out how he was going to ask to practice at Shiratorizawa. Hinata could ask Ushijima, since now he knows where Ushijima runs. Or maybe Tendou? Who knows. There’s not a chance that the coach would let him join, though. From the looks Hinata received from the older man, he didn’t like the kid. 

“Oh well,” Hinata thought, consciousness drifting away. “Maybe I should just show up for it? I mean, I’ve done it before... I hope their coach won’t mind too much....”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come on over and say hi!  
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/BigOlOnigiri)
> 
> [Tumblr](https://lonelym00nstone.tumblr.com/)
> 
> (I hate to make requests, but if you have nothing else to read and love a good original work, please check out "The Twelve Spirits of the Seven Lands". My friend and I have been working on this story for a little while (it's on hiatus currently because she has some personal shit going on) and would love to get it out there. This is her first story she's ever worked on publicly too. Thank you if you can. If you can't, that's totally okay!)


	2. 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re welcome back if we can sneak you in again,” Semi smiled, gesturing to Washijo secretly. “That is if he’s in a good mood.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayayayayya, Shiratorizawa time. I did horribly on this one, but aight. 
> 
> I likely won't post another chapter until??? Thursday? Maybe? Idk. Sometime at the end of the week.

Six days

\--

Today was Saturday. 

Hinata woke up at five in the morning so he could catch anyone from Shiratorizawa on his way there, hoping to convince them to let him join their practice. He gathered his clothes and shoes, glancing out the window at the melting snow on the pavement.

“I guess it did snow....” Hinata whispered, slipping his feet into his shoes and swung open the door. “Bye, mom!”

He bought a ticket and got on the upcoming train, taking a seat next to the door. Hinata paused for a moment, thinking over the plan he had set together yesterday. “I won’t be able to practice with anyone from my team... If I’m going to meet the other schools...”

That almost broke him. Hinata’s last goodbye was going to be tomorrow. He wasn’t going to see them the rest of the week. Hinata planned this  _ horribly _ . He bent over and covered his face, sparing the people with him in the cabin their pity. 

“Oya? Tangerine boy?” 

Hinata looked up from the ground and stared at a boy with red hair and a cheeky smile, eyes pinned to the purple and white track coat he had on. “Tendou? Wait, what are you doing here?”

“Visiting a friend, is all,” Tendou replied, taking a seat next to the ginger. “What are  _ you _ doing here? You realize you’re heading super far from Karasuno, right?”

“I know,” Hinata turned away and sighed, building up the courage he needed to ask Tendou about practice. “Hey, Tendou-”

“Yeah yeah, sure. I’ll sneak you in,” Tendou patted Hinata’s back with a grin. “What? I’m not an idiot. You’ve already snuck into our school once, doing it a second time shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Really?” Hinata’s eyes widened, his mouth curving into a toothy grin. “Thank you so much!” 

“Yep yep! I’m sure Wakatoshi will...  _ enjoy _ seeing you there?” Tendou thought aloud, tapping the edge of his chin with his index finger. “Who’s to say? However, may I ask why you want to join us for practice today?”

“Oh.. Uh, well...” he couldn’t exactly tell Tendou either.. “Because of winter break, I wanted to see everyone again. It’s been a while and I just felt like it would be nice to go around a bit.”

“Hmm.... Good enough,” Tendou shrugged, pushing himself off his seat. “Not exactly truthful there, are you? It’s fine, if you don’t wanna tell me, it’s cool. This is our stop, heads up.”

“Thank you again!” Hinata hopped onto his feet and followed Tendou off the train when it stopped, trailing behind the taller player with a melancholy expression. 

Tendou took a look behind him and saw the boy’s sadness, holding back a sigh and told himself that he was doing the right thing. The boy clearly had something going on and wanted to say goodbye or something to everyone. Who was Tendou to say no to that?

\--

“Your gym is  _ huge _ !!” Hinata gasped, taking in the scene fully. 

The gym was probably three times as big as Karasuno’s gym was. The lights were brighter and the walls were white. Everything seemed to shine. 

Tendou took pride out of that and smiled, lifting his chin a little before introducing everyone to Hinata. “Just remember, coach probably won’t allow it unless you let me do the talking.”

“Right!” Hinata huffed affirmatively, pumping both fists up. “Thank you so much for letting me come with you!”

“You’ve thanked me way too many times, kid...”

“Right, sorry.”

Tendou strolled over to his teammates with Hinata behind him, sliding out of the way to reveal the boy. Everyone stared at Hinata with shock, wondering why Karasuno’s number ten was at their school. No less wanting to practice with them.

“I found the crow on the train! He was talking about wanting to practice with us because of the break,” Tendou sung, Hinata nodding with a small smile. “It’s fine with me, totally, but what about y’all?”

“It all depends on what coach wants,” Semi said, but he seemed okay with it. “Just keep up with us.”

“I don’t want him here, but whatever. I can never win against Tendou,” Shirabu glared at the crow and turned away, Goshiki agreeing with his older teammate. 

“There’s a reason for that, Shirabu,” Tendou muttered, quiet enough for the setter to not hear him. “Where’s Wakatoshi? We gotta get him to agree with it!”

“Who invited Hinata Shouyou here?” and there he was. Ushijima walked through the doors and his eyes were immediately drawn to the mop of orange next to Tendou. 

“I did!” Tendou smiled. “The kid here wanted to practice with us! Everyone else is already okay with it! All that’s left is you-”

“And me,” Washijo, their coach, walked into the gym behind Ushijima, the players freezing, as well as Hinata. “I didn’t expect you to try and sneak in again, but here we are.”

“Coach coach, Hinata wanted to practice with us!” Tendou begged. 

“Why are you helping him, Tendou?” Washijo didn’t seem convinced yet.

“I’m not exactly sure on his reason, but he did say that he wanted to come and practice with us because of the break,” Tendou whispered while Hinata was off greeting all the other players. “There’s something else going on because he seemed a bit down about it.”

“Just because he’s sad about something doesn’t mean he can come in and work with us,” Washijo rubbed in between his eyes and groaned, holding his hands behind his back and shook his head. “You know what, fine. If I say no, he’ll probably just come back tomorrow anyways.”

“You’ve warmed up to the boy, I see,” Ushijima appeared behind Tendou, face as stoic as ever. 

“Not really, I’m just being nice,” Tendou stretched his arms up and turned away from Washijo, taking off his shoes and walked over to his bag.

“Mmm.” Ushijima grunted in response.

“You’re still not good with answers, Wakatoshi.”

...

Hinata had no idea what to do. 

At first, they did stretches like any team should, and then did a passing drill that was relatively easy. They all commented on how Hinata had gotten better since the last time they saw him, but he still sucked. 

They then moved onto a serving drill where Washijo _ only  _ allowed jump serves. Be it floats or top spins, you were only allowed to jump. Hinata was screwed.

“You need help?” Semi offered after serving a ball himself. “Washijo will make you do laps if you don’t get on with it.”

“R-right! Sorry.. I just, uh, don’t know how to jump serve,” Hinata whispered the last bit. “I mean! I know how to throw it and everything... But approaching? Nope.”

“Well,” Semi sighed, placing his hands on his hips. “At least you know how to throw it. Show me.”

“Oh god, what?” 

“Show me how you throw it. Top spin or not?”

“Top spin...” Hinata stepped a couple feet away from the end line and tossed the ball, approaching it like he would when attacking it. However, he both foot faulted  _ and _ missed the ball. It landed directly on top of his head and rolled away, the ginger bursting into shades of red and curled up on the ground. 

“Get up!” Washijo shouted from across the court. “Do it again or you’ll never get it!”

“Right!” Hinata shouted back, turning to Semi who was holding back from having a fit. “Hey! Don’t laugh! I don’t know how to do this! Teach me!”

“Okay okay! Sorry,” Semi calmed himself down and picked up another ball, blocking one that was served at him. “It’s good to know that you understand how to throw it and run at it, but... That was truly something.”

“Shush!”

“When you threw it, it was too far in front of you,” Semi held the ball out in front of him and tossed it, but didn’t run. The ball landed directly on the end line where you’d usually have to jump over. “Try and get the ball right around there. When you jump, you should land inside of the court. Maybe throw it a bit behind the end line since you stepped over the first time.”

“Thank you!” 

Hinata tried again without the running, the ball landing inside of the court. He groaned, chasing after another one and tried again. Semi watched and guided him while also doing his own serves, Hinata gathering the information and tried again. 

This time, the ball landed right in a good spot, to which Semi gave him a thumbs up. Hinata’s eyes glistened with pride and went to try again, this one landing in the same spot. 

“You’re such a mom,” Shirabu jokingly whispered to Semi, hitting the ball against the ground a couple of times.

“You know what, forty-five degree haircut?” Semi scoffed, a shot of electricity sizzling between the two. “It’s working, at least.”

Semi and Shirabu looked at Hinata and watched the boy run after the ball, hitting it fairly high in the air and into the net. Shirabu puffed a laugh out, Semi smacking his back. “He’s getting there.”

“Right right, okay, sure. He’ll get the serving down when he’s, what? Eighty?”

“How long did it take for you to learn this shit?”

Silence.

“Exactly.”

...

After several tries, Hinata finally got his first serve over the net. The people who were done watched Hinata while he tried, and cheered when he finally got it over. 

Their practice when on with two-versus-two games and hitting drills before Washijo ended it. Everyone packed up their things and got ready to leave, congratulating Hinata again for his hard work.

“Thank you all for today!” Hinata bowed, already dressed and ready to leave. “It meant so much to me!”

“You’re welcome back if we can sneak you in again,” Semi smiled, gesturing to Washijo secretly. “That is if he’s in a good mood.”

Hinata laughed, bowing a second time before taking off. “Thank you! Goodbye!”

The team watched as Hinata ran back to the station, his smile visible, but with sadness tainting his eyes.

“I get what you mean about there being another motive for his visit today,” Semi said to Tendou. “Maybe he’s moving?”

“Who knows, who knows,” Tendou hummed to himself, throwing his back over his shoulder. “It’s gonna snow again today. Said it was going to be a heavy storm.”

Just then, snow flakes started to fall from the sky. No one was surprised anymore when Tendou would say something and then immediately occur. He’s like.. A prediction God and everyone just accepts that. 

\--

Hinata headed home for the afternoon, seeing how there was going to be a blizzard at around two. He didn’t want to get caught anywhere in it, so the best place to stay was in his bedroom. 

“Welcome back, Shouyou,” his mother greeted him at the door, brushing off the tiny piles of snow that gathered in his hair. “Where’d you run off to early in the morning?”

“I went to practice with Shiratorizawa!” Hinata exclaimed, the excitement he felt there still in him. “It was so much fun!”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it sweetie, but next time, please tell me where you’re going,” she sighed, taking Hinata’s practice bag to the laundry room. “Your sister wanted to play volleyball with you before it started snowing. Lunch is in the fridge if you’d like something to nom on.”

“Thank you mom!” Hinata went upstairs and found his sister in her room, playing around with one of the volleyballs Hinata got from his team. “Hey!”

“What? It’s not my fault you disappeared!” Natsu pouted, holding the ball above her head. “Play with me!”

“Fine fine just not with that one!” Hinata took the volleyball from his sister and ran it back to his room, placing it in his closet for safety. He looked at it a little longer before taking the over ball from the floor and brought it outside. “We’ll play for only a little. The snow is going to get too heavy.”

“Yay!” Natsu hurriedly gathered her snow gear and ran downstairs, putting all of it on before walking outside. An inch of snow was already on the ground and Natsu already starting making shapes. “We could have a contest! Whoever drops the ball first has to be hit by the other with a ball of snow!”

“You think you’re going to beat me?” Hinata smirked at his little sister, cracking his fingers and stretched. “I just practice with a powerhouse, Natsu. If you think you’re going to win here, think again!”

“Try me!” Natsu fought back, preparing her own stack of snowballs. 

  
  


The siblings ended up playing until there was about a foot of snow on the ground, Natsu “winning” the competition. Really, Hinata went easy on her because he was a good brother. 

Their mother called them inside for hot chocolate and a snack, to which Natsu was off like the wind. Hinata picked up her wet snow gear and put them into the washing machine after flipping his own clothes, shivering his way into the kitchen. 

“This is what you get for not wearing warmer clothes!” Natsu stuck her tongue out at Hinata and chugged her hot chocolate, a whipped cream mustache appearing above her lips. “You’re never prepared for weather changes.”

Hinata shrugged and drank his own cup, thanking his mother and spent the rest of the day playing with Natsu. Be it video games or watching a movie, he did it. It was the least he could do for her.

Hours passed by and Natsu fell asleep on the couch in the middle of a movie. Their mother brought Natsu to her room and laid her down in her bed, turning off the lights and closed her door. 

“I’m going to head to bed too,” Hinata yawned. “Oh, mom, I forgot to tell you this, but tomorrow my team and I are going to go to a ramen joint. It’s like, a celebration for how well we did this year.”

“Just make sure to bring your phone with you, okay?” his mother smiled. “You forgot to today.”

“Pooey! Really??” Hinata walked into his room and found his phone sitting on his bed with several unread notifications from his team. “Oops. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, sweetie,” his mother kissed Hinata’s forehead and walked over to her own room. “Good night, hon. Take a shower, you smell.”

“Wow, thanks mom,” Hinata heard his mother laughing before her door shut. 

He took his phone with him into the bathroom and read through the messages, reading the times they all suggested. “Eleven, hmm? Yeah, okay.”

Hinata confirmed the time with them and turned off his phone, setting it on the sink and turned on the shower head. The water warmed up relatively quickly, Hinata stepping into it and stood there for a moment. The water running down his face mixed in with his tears as he fell down onto his knees, muffling his cries with his hands. He didn’t want to wake up his sister or mother and cause a fuss. He’d have to make up another lie. Another lie to the people he cares deeply about. 

“I can’t keep doing this,” Hinata thought to himself, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. “ _ I can’t keep doing this _ .”

...

Hinata got out of the shower with puffy, red eyes and quickly changed into his sleepwear. He jumped onto his bed and put his phone on the charger, ignoring the text messages from Kageyama about tomorrow’s meet up. Hinata had to plan how he was going to see Fukurodani on Monday. As well as meeting up with a certain Grand King the following day. 

“Oikawa,” Hinata whispered to himself, smacking his pillow onto his face. Pink and red dusted his cheeks as he tried to drown out the heavy heartbeat in his ears. 

Hinata grabbed his phone and texted Kageyama about Oikawa and asked for the setter’s phone number.

“ _ Why? _ ” Kageyama texted.

“ _ Just cause _ .” Hinata responded.

“ _... Fine. Don’t let that guy do anything funky to you though. Once he starts texting someone, he doesn’t shut up. _ ” Kageyama sent the older setter’s phone number after the previous text, as well as a goodbye and then went offline.

Hinata saved Oikawa’s number in his phone as “Grand King” with a little heart emoji at the end. He went through the team’s messages and sent one last message before turning off his phone for the night.

“I don’t have any money for the ramen,” Hinata mentioned aloud, smacking the pillow onto his face one more time before going to sleep.

He would think about that tomorrow morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: I got a question on what's actually going on and why Hinata's dying, so I'll explain it! This idea was based off a tiktok that I can't find right now, but it really got me thinking. The person/main character knows when he/she is going to die, and no one else knows. He/she can't tell anyone either (no one knows the reason why, but I chose the idea of "if you tell anyone, you die sooner"). As the days go by and the numbers go down, the person who's dying checks off all the things on their bucket list (in this case, Hinata practices with rival teams). I made a couple of ideas for myself on this: Hinata's dying, but he's not suffering from any sort of medical disease/virus. Sometimes, people die without warning and that's what I'm going to use for this. It's like an hourglass, in a sense. Once all the sand is drained from the one end, the timer is up (Hinata's lifespan).
> 
> If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask here or on Twitter or Tumblr. I'm happy to answer anything you need further details on!
> 
>   
> Come on over and say hi!  
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/BigOlOnigiri)
> 
> [Tumblr](https://lonelym00nstone.tumblr.com/)


	3. 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m free after practice tomorrow. Where do you want to go〈(゜。゜)?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the crows meet up!
> 
> We also finally introduce Oikawa! Kinda.

Five Days

\--

Today was the day Hinata would meet up with his team. He got himself up at six in the morning just to make sure he was ready, as well as to let out all of the tears he had built up from overthinking the night before. 

Down the stairs and in the kitchen, his mother and sister were already up and preparing breakfast. Hinata sat down next to Natsu and ate away, challenging Natsu to see who could eat faster.

“If one of you chokes,” Hinata’s mother crossed her arms and glared at her two children, both mid-chew. “ _I’m not taking you to the hospital._ ”

“S...Sorry,” Hinata apologized. Natsu ate her spoonful slowly, swallowing calmly without chugging it. “Hey, mom? Do you mind if I borrow some money for today?”

“For the ramen joint?” his mother confirmed, taking her daughter’s plate as well as her own and put it into the sink. “How much do you need?”

“Maybe... Maybe two-thousand?” Hinata wondered for a moment. How much was he planning on spending? “Maybe one-thousand?”

“I’ll give you two,” his mother wandered over to the entryway and took out her purse, taking out two one-thousand yen bills. “Don’t spend all of it though! If you do, I’ll make you work for it all back.”

“Right! Thank you!” Hinata hugged the money and ran back upstairs into his room and read through a couple new messages from his friends. “They’re all going to make it!”

“It’s only eight right now, Shouyou, you still have a couple of hours,” his mother gestured to the wall clock as Hinata ran back down the stairs with phone and money in hand. “If you really want to go out and wait for them, I’m not stopping you.” 

“I’m going to walk around the joint for a while until people start arriving,” Hinata said as he put on his shoes, as well as a jacket and scarf. “Bye mom! Bye Natsu! I’ll be back!”

“Bye bye!” Natsu waved at her older brother as he took off, almost slipping on the ice and falling on his face. “What an idiot.”

\--

Hinata arrived at the joint he talked about and sent a picture of it to everyone, making sure they all knew where it was and what it was called. Of course, since he didn’t actually say anything about directions, everyone was thanking the skies for Hinata’s sudden need to send pictures.

“ _Next time, try telling us where it actually is,_ ” Tsukishima texted back first; Hinata could picture the blond rolling his eyes. 

But that didn’t matter. For now, Hinata had two to three hours of freetime. He wandered away and down the block a little, meandering into a small stationary shop. It was filled with nice pens and pencils, as well as paper and backpacks. It was anyone’s dream to be in that kind of store; who doesn’t love stationary?

“Oh god, is that Karasuno’s ten?” 

Hinata turned around and faced two very similar looking guys, one with blond hair and the other with silver. “The Miya twins?!”

“Usually, yes,” Osamu cocked his head to the side, taking in the frightened boy’s expression. “What? It’s not like we have a knife pointed at your throat or something. Loosen up.”

“Sorry!” Hinata squeaked. “I just.. Didn’t expect you guys to be out this far.”

“Meh,” Atsumu left his brother’s side and stood in front of Hinata. “We decided it would be fun to explore a bit.”

“Actually, you wanted to come out here. I only tagged along because I knew you would probably get arrested if you were alone,” Osamu commented, Atsumu clearly offended by it. “I’m not lying.”

“I would never get arrested!” Atsumu slammed his hand on his chest, the other resting just above his forehead dramatically. Hinata laughed. “I never get caught!”

“Uh.. Sure okay you believe that if you want,” Osamu waited until Atsumu turned away and looked down at Hinata, scrunching up is face in disgust while gesturing to his brother. “God what a nightmare.”

“Oh yeah, I know,” Hinata laughed again. “I’m going to walk around a little bit. Gonna take a peek at the notebooks and stuff.”

“We can join you. It’s not like we have anything to do,” Atsumu suggested to the ginger. “Besides, I also need to buy some more supplies.”

“Oh yeah. Didn’t you drop your bag into a fount-” 

Atsumu quickly covered his brother’s mouth with his hands, keeping Osamu from talking anymore than he already was. 

“What was that?” Hinata wasn’t paying attention, too focused on the prices of the pens in front of him. 

“Nothing at all,” Atsumu lied, uncovering Osamu’s mouth. “If you don’t keep it down and try to further destroy my ego, I’m going to smack you.”

“If you want to fight in this store, I’ll fight you,” Osamu and Atsumu glared at each other and didn’t notice Hinata scurrying off to the paper section. “Your _crush_ or whatever is running away from you.”

“First of all, _no_ ,” Atsumu began walking with Osamu, shoving his hands into his pockets with a frown. “I’ve already given up on that. Besides, he clearly had his eyes set on some other guy. What was his name?”

“You mean Oikawa Tooru?”

“Yeah, that dude. From Aoba Johsai. I mean come on, anyone could see he has the hots for the brunette dude,” Atsumu waved his hand around a bit, finally catching up with Hinata. “If you watched Karasuno’s old games against Seijoh, you could clearly see how the kid’s eyes were pinned to the older guy.”

“Or maybe you paid too much attention to Hinata back then that he was the only thing in focus for you,” Osamu moved away from Atsumu before the blond could do anything stupid. He mentioned one of the notebooks he used to Hinata, pointing to the one that was lower in price. 

Atsumu rolled his eyes before his phone vibrated, his mother calling him for god knows why. “Hello? Hmm? Oh, yeah, he is. Wait, why? Now? Okay okay, we’ll be right there.”

“What was that about?” Osamu asked, following Hinata back to the checkout lane. 

“Mom called. She wants us back to help with some stuff,” Atsumu replied, putting his phone back into his pocket and waited for the crow to finish paying. “Yo, Hinata, we gotta get going. See you again maybe?”

Hinata flashed the twins a smile and waved when the three parted ways, the smile quickly vanishing. He watched as the twins turned around the corner and blended with the crowd, never to be seen again. Hinata took out his phone and looked at the clock, “nine-ten” reading just above a text message from Suga, Daichi and Asahi. 

By the time Hinata arrived back at the ramen joint, the three third years were already at the doors. They all greeted each other and decided to wait for more people to show up, which just so happened to be the second years. 

“All that’s left is Kageyama, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi,” Suga counted off. “I’ll go get us a table.”

“Why are you here so early, Shouyou?” Nishinoya decided to ask. “You’re usually always close to late.”

“Hey!” Hinata growled, the rest laughing at how true that fact was. “I had nothing else to do so I wandered around a bit! I got myself a notebook that Osamu suggested for me.”

“You met the Miyas? Why were they out this far?” Ennoshita questioned the first year. 

“They just said they were exploring. I never got further details,” Hinata shrugged.

Suga came back out through the doors right as the last three teammates arrived. They all walked in and took a seat at the table Suga asked for, all immediately conversing with each other.

“Hey,” Asahi whispered, nudging Hinata behind the menus. “Thanks for inviting everyone out. Daichi, Suga and I were trying to figure out how to get everyone out at some point this week.”

At that, Hinata burst into tears. Everyone stopped talking and turned their gaze to Hinata, who Asahi was freaking out over. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Hinata sniffled, lowering his head to rub his eyes and dry the tears. “I don’t know what came over me..” that was a lie. Of course he knows.

“I didn’t mean to make you cry, Hinata!” Asahi’s arms were waving around all over the place; his eyes started to water too. “What’s wrong? If it was anything I said!”

“No, it wasn’t that,” Hinata smiled, patting Asahi’s back to calm the guy down. “It’s just that I’m really going to miss you guys...”

“What are you talking about? We still have practice!” Tanaka folded up his menu and set it down on the table, confused and curious as to what Hinata was talking about.

“I’m not going to be able to join you guys for practice this week,” Hinata admitted. Everyone was quiet. “Some stuff came up and.. I won’t be able to make the morning practices this week, I’m sorry.”

“Hey, that’s okay!” Suga reassured him, shaking his head a couple of times. “We can always see each other again after practices.”

“That’s right! Come on. A whole week without me?” Nishinoya seemed pretty prideful today, but that was okay. Hinata chuckled a bit as Ennoshita smacked Nishinoya’s back. “That was a joke, calm it!”

Everyone else laughed, besides Daichi and Ennoshita. They were really the dads of the team, huh? 

...

Everyone ordered their food and ate away, thanking Hinata again for inviting them out. It was a nice little place, and their food was spectacular. Really, the smaller the place, the better the food was. Not even an hour later, they were all finished and completely full. They all got their separate tabs and paid for their lunch, staying seated and talked for a little while longer until some said they had to go. 

“We’ll miss you at practice, Hinata,” Daichi said, waving goodbye as he, Suga and Asahi walked away. “Coach is going to make you work harder when you get back! Be aware of that!”

“Of course!” Hinata waved back at Daichi. 

“Tsukki and I were going to go check out some of the shops around here,” Yamaguchi mentioned, taking Tsukishima’s hand in his hand stopped at the crosswalk Hinata and Kageyama were passing. “See you!”

“Goodbye!” Hinata’s eyes stayed put on the two other first years until they were halfway across the street. 

The second years all said their goodbyes as well, hoping to see Hinata sometime again this week. Hinata held back the urge to break down into tears again, just to save them from the stress of wondering what was happening. 

“I have nothing else to do today.” Kageyama said, taking out a ball from his bag. “Wanna practice?”

“Oh my god of course you’d bring a _volleyball_ to lunch,” Hinata sighed out a laugh; he should have guessed Kageyama would bring one. He’s _Kageyama_. “Sure.”

“You seem a lot less energetic these days,” Kageyama walked with the volleyball in his hand, he and Hinata both stopping at a park that wasn’t too far from where they were before. “What’s up with that?”

“Just some personal stuff.” that technically wasn’t a lie. 

“Must be some serious “personal stuff” to make you this upset,” Kageyama tossed the ball into the air and hit it down at Hinata, who promptly failed to pass it and sent it flying at Kageyama’s face. “ _If you’re not even going to try to pass an easy hit either, maybe I should just hit it_ harder _._ ” 

“Nope nope! I’m sorry! I spaced out again I swear!” the look on Kageyama’s face was deadly and always left Hinata cowering for his life. “Hit it again! I swear I’ll pass it this time!”

“You’d better, or I’m going to take out your shins,” Kageyama threatened, throwing the ball into the air again and hit it at Hinata. 

Hinata passed it well into the air, Kageyama setting it and Hinata passed it again. “Was that to your liking?”

“Too short,” Kageyama nitpicked. 

“One of these days, I’m going to hurt you.”

“Bet.”

\--

Kageyama and Hinata practiced until seven in the evening. That was a good six hours of practice without stop. Did they have water with them? No. Did they have an extra pair of clothes to change into? No. 

The two idiots ended up going home sweaty and dehydrated. 

“God, what happened to you?” Hinata’s mother asked as his son strolled through the doors completely exhausted. 

“Practice with Kageyama,” Hinata managed to choke out. 

“You look dead,” Natsu said bluntly. 

“Way to be straight up _blunt_ ,” Hinata stuck his tongue out at his sister, taking off his shoes and went into the kitchen for a drink. “I’m going to shower.”

“Dinner is almost done, so don’t take too long, sweetie,”

Hinata nodded and went into the bathroom, showering quickly to not miss out on food. He ran out of the bathroom and into his room where he hurriedly threw on clothes. The ginger flew down the stairs and into the dining room where his mother and sister just sat down to eat. 

“Thanks for the meal!” Hinata’s family said together.

Hinata picked up his chopsticks and shoved the food down his throat, his mother clearly unimpressed. But she let him off his time, seeing how he practiced for too long without food or water. 

Their dinner was quick, conversations short but comfortable. Natsu was already yawning and left to brush her teeth and go to sleep, kissing her mother goodnight. Hinata helped his mother clean the dishes before going to sleep himself, brushing his teeth and flopped onto his bed.

“Goodnight, Shouyou,” his mother whispered, closing her son’s door. 

“Night.” he said back. 

Hinata rolled onto his side and looked for Bokuto’s number, which he just so luckily had saved from Akaashi. He sent a message to him asking if he could practice at Fukurodani tomorrow. 

“ _Sure sure! I’m positive the coach will be good on it!_ ” Bokuto replied quickly. “ _Expect to work hard, my little apprentice!_ ”

“ _Totally! See you tomorrow!_ ” Hinata sent back.

Another message popped up on his phone; a message from Oikawa. Hinata freaked out for a moment and gathered his thoughts, hoping that his face wasn’t the same shade as a tomato. 

“ _Hey hey, Chibi-chan! Tobio-chan told me he gave you my number~. How’ve you been? Why’d you need my number? Hmm? Doing something fishy? ୧(๑•̀ᗝ•́)૭”_ Oikawa’s message read. Of course the Grand King would use emoticons... 

“ _No not at all! I actually asked Kageyama to give me your number because I wanted to practice with your team on Thursday!”_ Hinata responded. Oikawa was another guy to text back quickly, since the text bubble popped up fairly fast. 

“ _Hmm... Maybe, maybe.. I’ll have to check (((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o))).”_

“ _Oh, and also, I was wo-_ ” Hinata accidentally hit “send” before finishing his text, the boy silently cursing himself out.

“ _Hmm??? Did you just die or something, Chibi-chan ( ⚆ _ ⚆ )?”_

_“No no, sorry! I accidentally sent it before I finished,”_ Hinata tapped away at the screen, but paused for a second. He looked down at the message he was typing and sighed, deleting it all before rewriting it. “ _I was wondering if you wanted to hang out tomorrow. You know, just the two of us_.” Oh wow, that was horrible.

Oikawa’s reply didn’t come as quick as his others did and Hinata started to worry. Was Oikawa already dating someone? Was Oikawa not into guys? Hinata prayed that Oikawa didn’t think too much into the last bit.

“ _I’m free after practice tomorrow. Where do you want to go〈(゜。゜)?_ ” Oikawa’s message read. Hinata let out a sigh of relief, pumping his fists up and thanked whatever mysterious force that just saved his life. 

“ _Yeah I haven’t thought that far into it,_ ” Hinata really just wanted Oikawa to choose somewhere. The places that Hinata had in mind where not exactly “date, but not really” places.

“ _There’s this cute little cafe that I came across on Friday. Wanna go there o(^◇^)o?”_

_“That would be perfect, sure!_ ”

“ _I’ll send you the address in just a moment~.”_ Oikawa went offline, probably to get the exact place for Hinata. I mean, it’s not a bad idea. Hinata sucked when it came to directions. A short ping and an address appeared in Hinata’s inbox about two minutes later. “ _There you go, Chibi-chan! See you tomorrow afternoon! Maybe one? Two (・・？)? I’m good for anything after noon!”_

“ _One it is,”_ Hinata sent back, unaware of the smile pulling at his cheeks. You know, the smile you get when you’re so hopelessly in love with someone. “ _See you then, Grand King!”_

“ _No no, my name is Oikawa, Chibi-chan~ <(｀^´)>.” _

“ _Okay, then my name is “Hinata” and not “Chibi-chan”!”_

_“Maybe Hina-chan then (-_-)ゞ゛?”_

Hinata blushed. Even though Oikawa didn’t say it aloud, Hinata could hear him say it. “ _Yeah. Sure, that’s fine.”_

_“Okay then, Hina-chan! See you tomorrow ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿_!” with that, Oikawa went offline.

Hinata held back the girly squeals he had building up at the base of his throat so he wouldn’t wake anyone up. He set his phone on the charger and situated himself under his covers, shutting his eyes with a smile on his face.

Tomorrow would be a good day. Tomorrow, Hinata had the chance to confess to Oikawa. He forgot about all the negative possibilities just this once, drifting into his first, happy slumber in weeks. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come on over and say hi!
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/BigOlOnigiri)
> 
> [Tumblr](https://lonelym00nstone.tumblr.com/)


	4. 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It seems like you like him a bunch.” 
> 
> “I do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my, a spicy interaction.
> 
> and an extremely long chapter!? 19 pages?! oh my skies.

Four Days

\--

Hinata woke up to the sound of his phone going off; he’d received a text message from Bokuto a couple of hours before sunrise. Honestly, Hinata wasn’t surprised that Bokuto was up at that point.

_“Just got the OK from coach. You can come on over!_ ” Bokuto’s message read. 

Hinata swung his legs out of the comfort of his heated sheets, but didn’t move for a moment. He looked at the ground, a glossy stare shining over his eyes. Four days. Hinata had four days left. 

“Now’s not the time to break down,” Hinata whispered to himself, biting his cheek to hold back the emotions that wanted to strangle Hinata to death. “ _Please_.”

His voice cracked right before a tear trickled down his cheek, falling onto the back of his hand and slid to the floor. Hinata’s emotions had been out of control lately. At one point, he was happy. Not even a moment later, he would cry and feel alone. He tried to gather this thoughts and compose himself, but the harder he tried, the more the tears flowed. 

“ _Hey hey, Chibi-chan~! On my way to practice; be ready for this afternoon ೭੧(❛▿❛✿)੭೨!”_

Hinata started crying even harder, needing to use his pillow to muffle the hurt screams that boiled at the bottom of his lungs. He couldn’t move for eight minutes. Those eight minutes were spent crying over text messages from people who didn’t know what was happening to him. Those eight minutes, Hinata spent sobbing to himself in the confines of his bedroom.

\--

“Shouyou, dear, breakfast is ready!” his mother knocked on Hinata’s door, waiting outside for an answer. “Shouyou?”

“A-ah.. Sorry, I’m not hungry,” Hinata replied, wiping the snot off his face with a tissue. “I’ll be out in a minute..”

“Is everything all right, sweetie?” his mother question. She could hear the gargled voice Hinata had from crying. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he lied. “Just woke up wrong.”

His mother was silent for a moment before taking his answer, knowing full well her son wasn’t okay. But because Hinata didn’t seem comfortable enough to talk about it, she dropped it. “Come downstairs when you’re all freshened up, okay?”

“Thank you, mom,” Hinata listened to his mother walking down the stairs and likely into the dining room where Natsu was waiting patiently for his mother and brother to arrive. 

Hinata threw away the tissue in his hand and sat back down on his bed, his eyes red and puffy and really not worth hiding. He glanced down at his phone and decided to answer the messages sent to him by his elders, hoping they wouldn’t suspect anything behind his monotone replies.

“ _Can’t wait!_ ” Hinata first sent to Bokuto. 

“ _See you then!!”_ Hinata then sent to Oikawa.

Both were likely already practicing, so it’s not like they’d really read it anytime soon. The room felt cramped, and the only thing Hinata could think of doing was curling himself up into a ball and cry under his sheets. Today wasn’t going so well. Even though Hinata thought he was going to have a good day today, the world seemed to flip it around and make it worse than the previous. The world already hated him enough to kill him off like this. He couldn’t tell anyone in fear of dying sooner, so all he could do was cry to himself, fake his happiness, and wait for the days to end. 

Hinata chose to use this time to think about his teammates, as well as the other rival schools he was going to visit, or already visited. First was Shiratorizawa. The strongest team he’s probably gone up against, besides Aoba Johsai of course. Ushijima was expressionless off the court, but as soon as he steps into it, he’s suddenly more emotional. Not to mention the rest of his team. They’re all powerful on their own. Tendou and his almost accurate guesses. Semi and his serves. Shirabu and his precise sets. Goshiki and his determination to fight. Yamagata and his quick thinking. However, when combined, they become a force like no other. Maybe it’s because it’s Shiratorizawa, and their coach _is_ Washijo Tanji.

Second was Fukurodani. Their teamwork was a lot stronger than a lot of the schools Hinata had come across. Maybe that was because they all had to stick together to make Bokuto his best. Even so, they bonded like no other. Bokuto’s excitement and heavy emotions got the crowd fired up everytime Fukurodani would step out onto the court. Akaashi’s attention to detail and flawless sets always make it to the hitters, and not to mention his love toward Bokuto. Konoha’s strong sense of self, and Washio’s sheer presence in the front row. Not to mention their talented Libero Homi Haruki. 

Third was Nekoma. Oh golly, Nekoma. When Hinata first ran across Kenma, he didn’t expect the shy, introvert to be apart of a strong, skilled team. Nekoma’s defense and offense were both equal in power. Their Libero, especially, was their best defensive line. The way Kenma could pick up on things quickly and tell his team was terrifying at first. Kuroo’s read blocking and ability to keep the team going was always quite intimidating. Hinata was glad Karasuno and Nekoma had gotten closer again, since Hinata found some of his closest friends from there. How would Kenma react to Hinata never showing up to a practice game again? No. Hinata shook it off and tried to keep the good thoughts in his head. 

Fourth was Inarizaki. When they met at nationals, Hinata almost passed out and died. The Miya twins were surely a force to be reckoned with, and no one wanted to step in their way. Until, that is, Karasuno beat them. Miya Atsumu’s serves were likely the most terrifying thing he had ever witnessed with his own two eyes. Not only did it remind him of Oikawa’s monster serves back in the Spring Tournament, but it just made him think about how far he still needed to go to reach that level of power. Everything about Inarizaki made Hinata shiver. 

And lastly, was Aoba Johsai. Aoba Johsai, Karasuno’s sworn enemy. The school Kageyama’s senpai attends. The school Hinata’s crush attends. It’s weird, thinking about Aoba Johsai. They beat Karasuno in the Prelims, but were defeated in the Spring. Hinata wonders what they’re doing nowadays. He knows their practice was still going about, but other than that, he didn’t know about anything. Hinata wondered about the teammates and how they were doing since there were several third years graduating by the end of the year. He wondered about which colleges they would attend, specifically Oikawa, but no one needed to know that. Hinata wondered what Oikawa would major in; more than likely astrology or something science-y. Hinata overheard Oikawa and Iwaizumi talking about some sort of space museum at the tournament, and Hinata had figured out that Oikawa was obsessed with space. It was kinda adorable, actually. 

Hinata turned his head and looked at his alarm clock, jumping out of bed and frantically gathered his things. Fukurodani’s practice would be starting any minute now, and he was going to be late.

“Good job there, sentimental moron,” Hinata thought, mentally smacking himself across the face.

Hinata trotted down the staircase and into the foyer where he slipped on his shoes and unlocked the door. “I’m heading out!”

“Have fun at practice, dear!” his mother said. “Tell Kageyama I said hello.”

“Oh.. Um... I’m not going to Karasuno,” Hinata’s voice trailed out as he exited his home, too wrapped up in his own mind to hear his mother calling for an answer. 

\--

“Hey hey hey! You made it!” Bokuto greeted Hinata at the door, the poor boy out of breath and almost about to die. “You’re late, but I’m still glad you got here!”

“I would never miss this for the world,” Hinata said earnestly, staring Bokuto in the eyes with a flicker of passion and truth deep within his amber gaze. “What uh, what are we doing today?”

“Just some hitting and passing drills. Coach doesn’t want us to work too hard,” Akaashi stepped in, helping Hinata bring his stuff over to the corner of the gymnasium. “You can change in the equipment room. Honestly, not many of us use the club room to change at this point. It’s because of Bokuto, but we don’t discuss that.”

“Akaashi!” Bokuto whined, rolling out his boyfriend’s name like any other day. “You’re not very good at keeping promises!”

“Sorry, Bokuto,” Akaashi replied with a small grin. “Hinata, when you’re done, do some stretches and join us for passing.”

“Thank you!” Hinata ran over to the equipment room and shut the door, tearing off his clothes and changed into his practice outfit.

“Does he seem off to you today?” Bokuto asked, walking back to the rest of the team with Akaashi. 

“Now that you mention it, yes.” Akaashi said back. “He didn’t seem as bright today.”

“That’s what I mean! Maybe something’s going on at home or with his team.” 

“Maybe. It could explain why he wanted to practice here today.”

Hinata exited the equipment room fully changed and ready to warm up, waving and saying hello to all the members who noticed him. 

“I hope you’re ready for today, Hinata,” Bokuto approached Hinata mid stretch, patting the boy on the back semi-hard. Hinata winced. 

“Is there any particular reason why you wanted to join us today?” Akaashi seemed a little skeptical. “Is something going on at Karasuno?”

“Oh no no!” Hinata denied it quickly, throwing his arms up. “I wanted to practice with other rival schools this break.... Because I’ll miss you guys!” it technically wasn’t a lie.

“That’s so sweet!” Bokuto picked up Hinata in a warm, loving hug, but almost killed the poor crow with his muscles. “Oh, oops, sorry.”

“No.. No you’re fine,” Hinata wheezed a response. “On to practice, then?”

“Of course,” Akaashi smiled. “Come on, we’re gonna get the coach mad.”

...

“Did you forget how to pass or what, Hinata?” Bokuto teased, albeit friendly and in no ways meant to hurt the crow. “Your platform is all wrong.”

“I’m sure my face isn’t my platform, but then again, I seem to be using my head a lot more lately,” Hinata rubbed the red spot forming on his forehead. There was probably going to be a bruise there at some point. 

“Okay okay, let’s start over with platforms,” Bokuto set the ball he had in his hands down and jogged over to Hinata’s side. “When you’re passing, you hold your arms too high up, and you swing your arms more than you use your legs.”

“Oops.”

“It’s totally cool!” Bokuto reassured the ginger. “When I hit the ball at you, focus on angling your arms down a little more. Just stay in a squat and don’t move. Move and I’ll make you do ten push ups.”

“Right!”

Hinata stood in his ready position and waited for Bokuto to hit the ball down at him. When he saw the ball contacting Bokuto’s palm, he moved his arms into a platform and stayed as still as possible. The ball, thankfully, went straight up and back at Bokuto.

“See? Totally cool!”

Hinata smiled wide when the owl caught Hinata’s first successful pass. Other teammates who were already done came up to Hinata and congratulated him, the sunshine that Bokuto said was missing before suddenly reappearing. 

“We got twenty-nine more to go!” Bokuto reminded the ginger. 

“Right!” Hinata turned his attention back to Bokuto and repeated the same movements as the last pass, standing as still as possible without moving his arms or legs. 

Bokuto hit the ball down at Hinata continuously since the passes were perfect and came right where Bokuto needed them to be. By the end of it, Hinata was tired and almost out of breath. Bokuto’s hits were a lot stronger than he remembered.

“We’re doing hitting lines now!” Akaashi called, standing in front of the net and waited. 

There were three separate lines at the end of the court. There were three on the side Akaashi stood on, and there were three on the other side to likely catch the balls before they ran off somewhere. Hinata waited behind Bokuto, watching what the team was doing so he’d understand and not screw it up.

The three on the opposing side would serve a ball at the hitting side, where one would pass it to Akaashi. No one knew who he would toss it to, so everyone had to run up at it. Hinata guessed it was to prepare them for any surprises they needed to use, just in case something wasn’t working in their favor. Whoever passed the ball in the beginning would switch out with someone in the line behind them, and ran under the net and took the place of the one who served. Then, the server would run to one of the lines and wait their turn. It was a fun drill, Hinata concluded.

\--

Practice ended with Hinata completely worn out and ready for a well deserved nap. However, he couldn’t really do that. He had a date-but not so date-with Oikawa at one. 

“Thank you so much for letting me practice with you today!” Hinata bowed to Fukurodani’s team with a wide smile, everyone else running up to hug the sweet, energetic kid. “I’ll miss all of you!”

“We’ll see each other after break! Don’t make it sound like you’re going to die or something!” Bokuto laughed, but paused when Hinata’s eyes went wide and his smile has drooped to a terrified frown. “Hinata?”

“Ah-!” Hinata snapped out of his trance and apologized, thanking them all again with a smile. “Sorry, I just didn’t expect that kind of joke from you, Bokuto. Goodbye, guys!”

“Bye kid!” Bokuto shouted as Hinata ran out of the gym. It was eleven-fifteen by the time practice finished, and Hinata still needed to get home, clean up, and mentally prepare himself to see Oikawa. “What was with that reaction?”

“Who knows? But it didn’t look good,” Konoha spoke up, the team walking over to their belongings and started changing out of their knee pads and shoes. “Something serious must be happening for him to look like that.”

“Please don’t tell me he’s actually going to _die_ ,” Akaashi muttered with a worried-his face was still as expressionless though-look in his eyes. “It was just a joke, right?”

“I sure as hell hope so.” Bokuto said in return. 

Everyone stared at the gym door with worry. Something was wrong, but they couldn’t figure it out.

...

“Welcome home, Shouyou,” Hinata’s mother greeted her son from the living room, where she and Natsu were watching a show Natsu begged to watch. “How was practice with _not_ Karasuno?”

“Oh... Uh, it was good,” Hinata gulped, grip tightening on his bag’s straps. “I was at Fukurodani.”

“You realize that’s all the way in the _Kanto_ _region_ , right?” his mother looked even more pissed. “And what about Saturday, hmm?”

“Shiratorizawa.”

“That’s _also_ all the way across town! Shouyou, why are you going out there without my consent first?” 

“Because.. Well.. Because I thought.. It would be okay.. And I can take care of myself! I haven’t gotten kidnapped or anything! And I haven’t gotten myself hurt!” Hinata argued back, hoping his mother would let him off.

“You still can’t just go out there without telling me first! I appreciate you telling me about meeting with Karasuno on Sunday, but if you’re going out to all these far away schools to practice, you need to tell me the day before!” his mother sighed, Natsu completely confused and sort of worried. “Is there anything _else_ you plan on doing?”

“Uh... I’m going to meet up with someone this afternoon at one.. And then I’ll be going over to Nekoma on Wednesday, and then on Thursday I’ll go to Aoba Johsai,” Hinata gave in and explained his plan to his mother, hoping she would calm down. “Please.. I just want to go see everyone!”

“You’ll be able to see them again after break! Why are you going now instead of to your own school to practice?” 

“Because I _won’t_ be able to see them after break, mom!” 

Hinata and his mother froze. His mother was less angry now, and more than likely baffled. 

“Why?”

Hinata couldn’t tell her why. “Because.. Well, uh.. I just won’t...? I’ll be too caught up in school that I won’t be able to see them. And a lot of the third years are graduating and I wanted to see them before they left!” not really a lie? Hinata couldn’t tell if what he said anymore was the truth or not.

His mother sighed, rubbing her forehead with her thumb and middle finger. “You’re meeting someone this afternoon, yes? Don’t make them wait... I’ll leave money on the counter.”

“T-thank you!” Hinata ran into the bathroom and turned on the shower, leaving his mother and sister in the living room.

“He’s an idiot?” Natsu questioned, her eyes leaving the screen to look at her mother.

“Just a growing boy with no care in the world,” her mother chuckled. “Like his father, really.”

...

Hinata got out of the shower and went into his room, closing and locking the door before laying out four different outfits to choose from. The first choice was black jean overalls and a white and black striped t-shirt. Second was a cream-colored jacket with a black turtle neck and black skinny jeans. Hinata also realized he had a lot more black in his wardrobe than he thought. Third option was a white and orange striped shirt with dark blue jeans. Fourth was another jacket-this time it was pale orange-with another pair of dark jeans and a red and purple shirt. Honestly, they all sucked.

“I hate my style,” Hinata thought out loud, putting on a pair of boxers. “Just... One, two, three, four...”

Hinata closed his eyes and randomly chose one, his finger landing on option one. Oh no. “Wow, okay, fine.” To be honest, that was the second choice he had in mind. First was option two. 

He changed into his outfit and grabbed a hat from his closet-it was just a black cap-and went downstairs to the foyer. His mother had placed money on the counter, like she said, and Hinata gave back the leftovers from Sunday.

“Do you have your phone?” his mother asked.

“Yup!”

“Money?”

“Yup!”

  
“You going to do anything stupid?” Natsu chimed in.

“NO!”

Hinata scrunched his nose up at Natsu, who promptly stuck her tongue out at him and shooed him away. “I’ll be back!”

“Call me if there’s trouble!” his mother watched Hinata run out the door and down the street, reading something off the screen of his phone before putting it back into his pocket. 

“He’s going to do something stupid.” Natsu was always the blunt type.

\--

By twelve-forty, Hinata arrived at the cafe Oikawa said they would meet up at. Oikawa was nowhere to be seen, and Hinata prayed that he didn’t stand him up. Hinata decided to sit down on the short ledge to the cafe’s side, spacing out as he watched the clouds move. He made as many shapes as he could of out of them, and tried to occupy his gut feeling by making up stories. His gut feeling being Oikawa not coming.

Twelve-fifty, and still no Oikawa. Hinata noticed some people staring at him and some probably got why he was sitting there. He could feel the pity-stares on him. But Hinata still tried his best to look like he was way too early and that there were actually people coming.

One-o-four, and still no Oikawa. At this point, Hinata lost hope in him showing up.

“I’m not surprised,” Hinata mumbled, letting out a long, hurt sigh. “I guess I’ll go home...”

Hinata got up from where he was sitting and started walking away from the cafe, closing his eyes to hold back tears.

“Hey! Hina-chan!” someone shouted, footsteps getting closer to Hinata from behind. “I’m sorry! For being late! Practice went on long after eleven and I didn’t realize I’d run out of time!”

Hinata looked behind him and saw Oikawa running toward him. A stray tear broke free from Hinata’s right eye and slid down the side of his cheek without his acknowledgment. 

Oikawa stopped in front of Hinata panting, rubbing his right knee for a moment before standing up straight to greet the crow. “Hey, Hina-”

Oikawa’s attention was brought to the tear on Hinata’s face, as well as his distraught expression. Hinata noticed his staring and felt the tear on his cheek, wiping it away with a weak grin.

“Did I do that?” Oikawa asked seriously, placing both of his hands on Hinata’s shoulders. “I’m sorry, Hina-chan.”

“Ah, no. It’s fine,” Hinata chuckled, although forced. “Come on, let’s go in! You said it was a good cafe and I don’t wanna wait to try their food!”

Oikawa followed behind Hinata with a slightly worried smile. Oikawa didn’t expect to make him cry, nor see Hinata lie about his feelings like that. He thought the ginger was always upfront about it. Oikawa sensed something was off, but didn’t want to pry in hopes of saving this little date.

“So,” Hinata started, the two taking their seats after a waiter brought them over to a table. “Where did you find this place again?”

“Just came across it. Iwa-chan and I were walking around and I couldn’t help but notice this cafe,” Oikawa explained with a smile. “So I begged him to go inside with me and we did. Got some drinks and went on our way.”

“Nice,” Hinata smiled back. “Oh, and also, did you ask your coach about me? For Thursday?”

“Oh yes, I did!” Oikawa’s eyes lit up, his posture straightening. “He said it would be perfectly okay with him! A little bit of persuasion from me and away we go!”

“Thank you so much!!” Hinata almost blinded Oikawa from the sheer amount of sunlight he was radiating, but Oikawa couldn’t look away. “I’m already super-duper excited!”

“‘Super-duper’? Loving your vocabulary, Hina-chan,” Oikawa teased the ginger. He rested his chin on the back of his hand, completely infatuated with the crow. “How’s _Tobio-chan_ doing?”

“You sound disgusted just by saying Kageyama’s name,” Hinata couldn’t hold back a laugh; a severely angelic, heart-melting laugh. “But he’s doing fine. Still.... Kageyama-y... But fine!”

A waitress came over to their table and asked for what they wanted to drink. Hinata asked for green tea and Oikawa asked for coffee. 

“Really? Coffee? It’s like... One-twenty,” Hinata looked at the wall clock behind them for the exact time. 

“Gotta get a boost after practice. You mean you don’t chug a pot of coffee after practicing?” Oikawa tilted his head slightly in a playful manner. 

“Coffee is gross.”

“You’re just not used to it yet. Don’t worry, when you get to my age, you’ll beg for a good cup of coffee,” Oikawa laughed. Hinata blushed at the perfect, Oikawa-y sound that just came out of his mouth. It sounded so _genuine_ too.

“I don’t think so.. I’m good with my tea,” Hinata refused, the waitress bringing over their orders. “Ah, thank you.”

“Of course. Are you two ready to order? Couples get ten percent off this week,” the woman smiled at Hinata and Oikawa.

Hinata blew up all shades of red while Oikawa covered his jaw with his hand to hide the quirky smile on his face. “We’re not a couple.” Hinata whispered.

“I see. My apologies,” the woman put away the pad she’d gotten out to write their orders on, seeing how they likely needed time. “I’ll come over in five minutes when you’re ready. Does that sound okay?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Hinata nodded. 

The two boys sat in silence, reading through the options on the menus provided when they first sat down.

“So uh,” Hinata cleared his throat, hoping to start a non-awkward conversation. “You like anyone, Oikawa?” that was the worst possible sentence to _ever_ come out of his mouth. Hinata wanted to die right there and then.

“I do,” Oikawa answered back. 

“O-oh....” Hinata buried his face deeper into the menu, unable to look back up at Oikawa. “Is she nice?”

“He’s nice, yeah,” so it was a he. “Super cute too.”

“I see...” 

“You got someone you like, Hina-chan?”

“I think so.” Hinata decided on his order and folded up the menu, setting it at the end of the table. “I mean, he probably doesn’t like me back, but that’s cool.”

“Also a he?” Oikawa’s eyebrows rose slightly. “Wait, is it Tobio-chan?”

“Oh god no,” Hinata wheezed. “Never in a million years. He’s too much like family.”

“Okay, good. Because if you said yes I would have started crying,” Oikawa laughed behind the menu, muttering a bit and then put his menu on top of Hinata’s. “Because like, come on. You can do better than Tobio-chan. Everyone can do better than Tobio-chan.”

“Surprisingly, a lot of girls are into him,” Hinata had no idea _why_ , but he was apparently popular when it came to looks. “It’s cause he’s tall and stoic or whatever. A lot of girls are into that and I don’t know why.”

“Who knows?” Oikawa sighed. “If Tobio-chan ever started dating before me, I might just bury myself in the ground and never come back out.”

“Yeah really.” Hinata and Oikawa laughed together.

The waitress came back over and the two ordered what they wanted; Hinata just want one of the sandwiches and Oikawa asked for cold soba. She nodded and left the two alone, putting their orders into the system and went to help another table. 

“Cold soba? I didn’t know you were into that,” Hinata mentioned, a little shocked. “Well, actually. I don’t know a lot about you besides stars... and all that jazz.”

“How'd you figure that out?” Oikawa leaned back into his chair and crossed his arms. He was sure he didn't tell anyone else about his hobbies. Especially his alien, science-y hobby.

"I.. Uh.. Overheard you and Iwaizumi talking about a space museum back during the tournament," Hinata admitted, scratching the back of his neck. "Don't get me wrong. I think it's cool that you're into space!"

Oikawa's eyes shot open slightly, taking in the genuine comment from the ray of sunshine. He sighed, smiling softly for the first time he had in a while. "I appreciate your little compliment there, Hina-chan~. Now, though, let's get back to the romance bit, hmm?"

“Oh please don’t. That was just a spur-of-the-moment question that my mouth had no control over,” Hinata groaned, covering the blush on his cheeks with his hands. 

“Well, it’s a conversation starter, I guess,” Oikawa shrugged a bit, a cute, smug little smile curving around his mouth. “Tell me about your crush, Hina-chan~.”

“Please spare me the embarrassment, Oikawa....”

“Please please? I want to know who’s catching the little one’s eyes,” Oikawa begged Hinata, sending the ginger one of his signature “persuasion” smiles. Oikawa had way too many different smiles that Hinata couldn't keep up with them all. “I’ll pay for our whole lunch if you tell me about him.”

“You can’t bribe me with free lunch!”

“I’ll toss to you more on Thursday.”

“Yeah okay deal,” Hinata watched Oikawa burst into laughter, knowing full well Hinata couldn’t deny that. 

“I had a feeling you would agree to it if I mentioned volleyball,” Oikawa wiped a tear from his eye, calming himself before waiting for Hinata’s answer. "You didn't even pause to think about answering me either."

“Oh hush it,” Hinata rolled his eyes with a pout. “But uh.. Well... Where do you want me to start?”

“Hmm... School?”

“Not Karasuno.”

“Hina-chan~!! Give me proper answers!”

“That was never apart of the deal, Oikawa.” Hinata stuck his tongue out at the brunette.

“Fine...” Oikawa pouted, sticking his lower lip out more than the top. But he quickly smiled to show Hinata he was only joking. He wouldn’t actually whine over something like that. “Age?”

“Older than me.”

“Hair color?”

“Dark.”

Oikawa was really not satisfied with Hinata’s answers, but had to deal with them anyways. They were better than nothing, at least. “Do they play volleyball?”

“Yes.” Hinata nodded. “And he's really good at it. Okay, imagine if like... a handsome _God_ decided it was going to play volleyball and then decided to bless everyone, me included, with their beauty, strength, and talet.”

“‘Handsome God’ huh?” Oikawa looked a little annoyed. Hinata’s embarrassed smile quickly turned into that of an anxious one. “Sounds pretty nice.”

“W-what about you?” Hinata asked, trying to make Oikawa a little happier. “Oikawa?”

“Well,” Oikawa stretched for a moment, cupping his hands together on the table. “He’s quite adorable. He doesn’t go to my school, but I really wish he did. He’s probably one of the kindest, sweetest guys I’ve ever met. If he were to be described as anything, I'd call him the sun.”

“There goes my chance..” Hinata thought to himself. He continued to hold up his walls and forced another compassionate smile, hoping Oikawa wouldn’t see past it. “Do they play volleyball?”

“Yep they do! That’s how I met him,” Oikawa had a dash of pink striped across his face. Hinata felt a slight twinge playing at his heartstrings, his chest squeezing him until he felt like he was out of breath. 

“Well, I do hope you and him get together. It seems like you like him a bunch.” 

“I do.”

Hinata’s smile twitched, but right before he could say anything, their food arrived. Hinata brought his attention down to their meal and decided to drop the romance subject, choosing volleyball over it. 

Of course they were going to talk about volleyball. They did for the rest of lunch. They split the bill and paid for their own meals, trying to spare the other the money. After all, they were jobless and really relied on their families for it at the moment.

\--

They left the cafe at three-thirty, which was a lot later than they expected to. Oikawa suggested they go check out a shop just down the block, and Hinata agreed. It’s not like he had anything else to do today. Neither of them did. 

The two spent hours walking around and visiting shops. They had bought some stuff from the first place they stopped at from the cafe-they bought volleyball merch-as well as the other ones they went into-more volleyball related items. Honestly, the two were such volleyball nerds, they could probably bore someone to death. 

Before they realized it, the sun had gone down. The sky was no longer blue, but red and yellow. Oikawa offered to walk with Hinata until they had to separate, but Hinata denied it.

“I’ll be fine, Oikawa,” Hinata smiled, albeit short. “But hey, promise me that you’ll tell whoever you’re pinning over that you like them, got it? If you don’t by the end of the week, I’ll make absolutely sure we beat you the next time we play against Seijoh.”

“I’ll be there to watch whether or not you’re threats are empty,” Oikawa and Hinata looked at each other with fire in their eyes, both passionate smiles plastered on their face. “And I plan on telling them soon. You should do the same. Can’t keep them waiting, Hina-chan~.”

“Uh-huh. Like you’re any better.”

Hinata and Oikawa went their separate ways at a cross road. Oikawa went toward the sunset while Hinata went away. The ginger’s eyes stuck to Oikawa’s back until the brunette was no longer seen, having disappeared around a corner. The determined smile on Hinata’s face was gone by the time he got home, the only thing left was watering eyes and quivering lips.

“Welcome home!” his mother said from the kitchen. “Dinner will be ready shortly!”

“Thank you!” Hinata tried his best to sound like nothing was wrong, and apparently his mother bought it. 

He walked up into his room and set down his shopping bag that held all of the items he bought with Oikawa. He took them out and put them on his dresser and windowsill, making his room a little more decorated. He threw away the bag and sat down on his bed, holding his head in his hands. His breathing at this point was labored; Hinata kept choking on his own spit. Not to mention he was crying for the hundredth time this week. Hinata was a mess. 

“Oi! Big brother! Dinner!” Natsu barged into Hinata’s room and shouted at her older brother before sprinting downstairs and into the dining room.

Hinata dropped his hands from his face and tried his best to hide the red circles under his eyes by splashing some water onto his face from the bathroom. He dried the water off and went down into the kitchen, where his sister was eagerly awaiting dinner.

Nothing too exciting happened during dinner. And if Hinata’s mother noticed the puffiness around Hinata’s eyes, she didn’t say anything about it. Natsu crashed right after finishing her dinner, her mother needing to carry her upstairs and brush her teeth.

“Good night, mom,” Hinata said after cleaning up for the evening.

“Good night dear,” she replied, carrying Natsu to her room and set her in bed. “Did everything go well with your friend today?”

“Yeah, we had fun,” Hinata shot a smile at her before entering his room and closing the door.

His mother looked at Hinata’s door with a look only mothers would give their troubled children. She didn’t know what was wrong. Hinata hadn’t been himself all week, and she didn’t know why. Hinata would always tell his mother what was wrong with him, but now, he doesn’t want to say anything. Her heart ached, knowing she couldn’t do anything until he opened up to her again.

\--

Hinata laid down on top of his covers and stared at the ceiling, knowing in his gut that he wasn’t going to fall asleep that evening. 

“ _I had fun today, Hina-chan ⊂((・▽・))⊃! We should hang out again!”_ a message from Oikawa popped up on Hinata’s phone, which make Hinata’s chest squeeze tighter than it did in the cafe. 

“ _We should! See you on Thursday, Oikawa.”_

“ _Yup yup! Bye bye, Hina-chan ✾(〜 ☌ω☌)〜✾! Sleep tight!"_

Hinata felt like he had just been cut open so someone could rip out his heart and destroy it in front of his face. Everything hurt, knowing that Oikawa liked someone else. He was a fool to believe he had a chance. 

That whole evening, Hinata cried softly. Not the screaming and wailing, but the silent type. The one where you’ve already lost everything and the only thing you could do was cry. The one that leaves you a broken mess by the end of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did my heart hurt writing this? Yes it did. Do I regret it? Nope no in the slightest >:3
> 
> Come over and say hi!  
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/BigOlOnigiri)
> 
> [Tumblr](https://lonelym00nstone.tumblr.com/)


	5. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So I might as well use that time to spend with family.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day three yee-yee
> 
> I've read all of your comments and hopefully answered them all, and I could tell I'm breaking your hearts. WELP, BE PREPARED IS ALL I CAN SAY HEHUEHUEHUHWHEUH

Three Days

\--

Hinata had gotten himself out of bed at around four-fifteen in the morning. He, true to his word, didn’t sleep that night. It’s not like he could sleep well this past week to begin with, but it got worse. Mixing together his death  _ and _ the high chance that Oikawa didn’t like him back was make his  heart head throb. 

The sun wasn’t going to rise for another hour, give or take, but all Hinata wanted was for its light to drench his face. He needed a refresher. Or maybe he needed water. Hinata opted for water.

The bathroom was just down the hall, but he didn’t want to wake up his mother or sister by stepping on the creaking floorboards or possibly slipping. So Hinata decided the best bet was to go into the kitchen downstairs and pour himself a glass of cold water; or maybe just splash himself to clear his mind. The refreshment felt nice as it flowed down Hinata’s throat and into his stomach, leaving him somewhat relaxed even for a quick second. 

“What day was today?” Hinata thought to himself, on the verge of passing out. Not sleeping for an entire evening really hits you hard. “Tuesday. Right.”

He had nothing planned for Tuesday. Hinata chose to use it to spend time with his family, since, really, he wasn’t going to be able to do that in the next couple days. Hinata promised himself he would do whatever Natsu wanted-that was reasonable-and he would help his mother without her asking him first. Today, he was going to be a better son/brother than he was the whole week. Maybe his whole life. He had to make up for his stupidity and immature behavior today. He had to.

\--

Two hours flashed past with a blink of Hinata’s eyes, since, well... He fell asleep. Natsu ended up waking him up-from the couch-because he started jumping on him. Hinata’s ribs were going to break if she didn’t stop, but he didn’t want to shout at her.

“Natsu,” Hinata started, just above a forced wheeze. “Get off of me.”

“Why are you on the couch?” she asked, listening to Hinata’s pleas for mercy. “Did you stay up all night, big brother?”

“No,” Hinata lied, rubbing the sore spot on his chest-it was totally going to bruise. “I came down for a glass of water and fell asleep.” that wasn’t a lie.

“Shouyou, if you’re up, would you mind helping me prepare breakfast?” his mother chimed in, taking out a skillet. “We’re gonna do something Western today.”

“Western? What peaked your interest?” Hinata asked, approaching the kitchen sink to wash his hands. 

“I saw a recipe the other day and I wanted to try it,” she replied, taking out a carton of eggs from the fridge. “It’s called “Huevos Rancheros”. It’s not Western-Western. It’s a Mexican dish. I just hope I bought everything I need.”

Hinata’s mother got out vegetables from a drawer in the fridge, and then got out circular bread called Tortillas. Honestly, Hinata’s knowledge of other countries and their traditional foods was poor, but that didn’t stop him from being incredibly intrigued. 

“Can you fry some eggs? Sunny-side up,” his mother asked, chopping up an avocado. “Not too runny.”

“Yes mom!” Hinata dribbled some oil onto the skillet and waited for it to warm up, cracking a couple of eggs onto it and waited a minute for the eggs to cook slightly. “Is there anything else you need?” Hinata poured a little bit of water onto the pan and covered it with a clear lid, watching it steam up.

“There’s tomato and chili sauce in the pantry. Can you get that for me?” 

“Yup!”

Hinata skipped over to the pantry and took out the two cans of chili and tomato sauce. Natsu had turned on the television after not-so-secretly setting the table to surprise her mother. 

“Put both into a pot and let it heat up,” his mother instructed, taking the sliced avocados and placing them onto a plate. She took out another pan and placed a tortilla onto it, cooking it until it was warm and crispy. She then moved them to three separate plates and put some of the sliced avocados onto each tortilla. “Are the eggs done?”

“Yuppers!” Hinata took the lid off the eggs and let the steam hit his face. It smelled pretty good, even if it was only eggs. “Not too runny, not too cooked.”

Hinata’s mother took the eggs and placed one on everyone’s plate. She checked the tomato-chili sauce, and when she declared it done, she poured about a spoonful onto each plate. Hinata sprinkled some seasoning onto the dishes before helping clean up the pots and pans. 

“Thank you for helping, Shouyou,” his mother kissed the top of his head, putting away the cleaned pans Hinata just dried. “What got you into the mood to help today?”

“Just felt like it,” Hinata shrugged, pausing Natsu’s show and turned off the television. “To make up for the week.”

“Oh, honey, I’m not  _ extraordinarily  _ mad at it anymore,” his mother poured Natsu a glass of juice and sat down herself, Hinata following and sat in the seat next to his sister. “I know you really wanted to see everyone, but not telling me was wrong. I’m just glad you and I talked about it. I’m not going to stop you from seeing your friends now, since I know where you’re going, but I’d appreciate you warning me beforehand.”

“I still wanna make up for it and be as helpful as possible today,” Hinata pressed on, taking a bite out of his breakfast. It was delicious. “Holy crackers...”

“I know, right?” his mother laughed, eating a piece of her own food. “I saw several good reviews and I wanted to make it.”

“It’s so good!” Natsu cheered, devouring her food with a happy grin on her face. 

The happy family enjoyed their Mexican breakfast with laughter and comfortable chatter. Hinata, as the laughter died down, felt something in his heart break. He would miss this. He wouldn’t be able to see Natsu overreact to their mother’s food. He wouldn’t be able to help his mother whenever she needed assistance. 

He would miss the laughter that made his heart feel whole. The laughter that made it feel like he really belonged somewhere, and had people who loved him. That laughter that wasn’t meant to harm to degrade someone, but to laugh _ with _ them and have a good time. The one that made people feel happy; the ones who couldn’t see color before suddenly  _ could _ . Not to mention,  _ this laugh was the laugh that came from a family _ . A friendly laugh was different from one from your family. A friendly laugh was from someone you would joke around with from time to time. Not one where you spent your entire life listening to it. 

“No,” Hinata thought to himself, noticing how his sight started to wobble. “No crying. Not in front of them.”

“If you’re all done, Natsu, could you clean your plate off for me?” their mother asked.

“I can do it for her! I’m done anyways,” Hinata shoved the rest of his breakfast in his mouth and took his sister’s plate from her, setting both down in the sink and turned the faucet on. I mean, it’s a semi-good excuse to hide any tears that decided they were gonna go on a run. “Thank you for breakfast, mom!”

“Of course, honey,” his mother smiled at Hinata, who wasn’t turning around and focused more on scrubbing the dishes. “You want more juice, Natsu?”

“Yes please!”

\--

Eight o’clock. Hinata had twelve hours until the day was over. What would Natsu want to do? She would probably want to play volleyball or watch whatever shows were currently being broadcasted. 

“Hey Natsu,” Hinata spoke up. He might as well ask. “Is there anything you want to do today?”

“What about practice?” Natsu and their mother both asked.

“We have today off,” Hinata replied. That was a lie though, of course they would have practice. The only day they didn’t want on Friday. “So I might as well use that time to spend with family.”

“Volleyball!” Natsu shouted. “If you’re not going to play with your team, you can play with me!”

“Uh.. Yeah okay then,” Hinata figured she’d want to do something else. Thinking about if Natsu wanted to play volleyball was really just a last resort. “I’ll go get the ball from my closet. We need to be careful for ice though!”

“Yay!” Natsu ran to the back door and swung it open checking the ground for anything ice-like so they wouldn’t fall and hurt themselves. There was nothing, thankfully.

Hinata rolled the ball out to Natsu, who then picked it up and tried to hit it back to her older brother. The ball only ended up hitting another pair of balls and a squealing, hurting mess of orange on the ground. 

“I’m sorry!” Natsu crouched down next to Hinata and could only watch as her brother held his privates in pain. “Big brother, don’t die!”

“I.. I’m not going to die, but it hurts,” Hinata managed to squeeze out. Everything flashed before his eyes as he had fallen onto his side. “You need to be careful.”

“R-right!”

...

The day flew by without Hinata even realizing it. At one point, it was eight in the morning. What felt like minutes turned into hours, and it was suddenly seven in the evening. Hinata just ended up forgetting time for a good eleven hours. 

“Dinner’s ready!” their mother set down a pot of cooked vegetables and meat on a hot pad. “Come on you two!”

Natsu and Hinata chased each other down the stairs, Hinata’s face covered in pink glitter and stickers. Apparently, while their mother was relaxing in the living room, Hinata let Natsu cover his face like if it were an art project.

“You’re never going to get all that off,” his mother chuckled, handing her son a wash cloth. “You’re going to find sparkles all over your face for the next three years.”

“Oh god,” Hinata groaned, wetting the cloth and wiped off Natsu’s art. “I don’t wanna be known as glitter boy or anything.”

The Hinata family ate their dinner and cleaned up, Natsu still full of energy, but in need of a good nap. Hinata brought his sister to her room after they brushed their teeth together, jamming out to a song Hinata played on his phone for Natsu. 

“Good night,” Natsu whispered from her bedsheets, flashing Hinata a bright, toothy smile.

“Good night, Natsu,” Hinata whispered back, closing her door shut. “Good night mom!”

“Good night, sweetheart!” she replied from the living room. Hinata could only assume she was catching up on a game show she found the other day. “Do you plan on going somewhere tomorrow?”

“Yeah! I’m going to Nekoma!” Hinata replied back, closing his door with another good night.

Hinata ended up crashing. Not only because he had a long day, but because he didn’t sleep the previous night. Tomorrow, Hinata would go to Nekoma. 

“Oh shoot!” Hinata took his phone off the counter and texted Kenma, who was more than likely wide awake. 

“ _ Kenmaaaa! Would your coach mind if I came over to Nekoma for practice tomorrow morning?”  _ he pressed the send button and waited for his friend to respond, which didn’t take all that long.

“ _ Probably not. Why? _ ” 

“ _ Because I’d like to practice with you guys! I won’t be able to see you until break is over, and I thought it would be a nice idea to join you all!”  _ Not a lie. Not the truth.

“ _ Hmm.... Okay. I’ll check with him tomorrow morning.” _

Kenma went offline a moment before Hinata. He should have asked Kenma earlier and not at seven-fifty. But that’s fine, timing wasn’t one of Hinata’s specialties. 

Hinata wrapped himself in the comfort of his blanket and fell asleep, his heart aching more than it had earlier. He couldn’t tell if it was because he kept thinking about Oikawa or it was because he knew he was going to die. Either one didn’t seem like it was a good thing to think about, but he did anyways. He needed to think about happier things, not the sad things. But everytime he tried, they would always get turned upside down.

Thinking about volleyball? He would never be able to play again. Thinking about family? He was going to leave them all behind. His friends? They didn’t know the last time they saw him was really the  _ last time _ . Oikawa Tooru? He didn’t know how much Hinata loved him. 

Everything sucked. Everything sucked and there was nothing he could do about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't know if you couldn't tell, but I gave up. I didn't wake up until late today and I didn't have enough time to go over the chapter as much. I'm sorry since it's so short! T^T
> 
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> (Also, because I'm kind of disgusting but I love it anyways, how would you people feel if I posted an Ereri fic. I rewatched all of AOT over the last two days (yes, im sad, don't patronize me) and like. Yes. Please comment answers x_x. I just wanna make sure I don't upset anyone)


	6. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He wouldn’t see anyone again after tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second to last chapter 
> 
> This is certainly not my best writing, but understanding that I'm going through some stuff. Enjoy!

Two Days

\--

Hinata hurried off to Nekoma after downing his breakfast like he had never seen food before. Since the rival school was pretty damn far away, he needed to leave early. He already made the mistake of being late to Fukurodani, he wasn’t about to do the same for Nekoma.

Hinata hopped on the train and took a seat near the doors he just walked through, clutching his bag tightly against his chest. He wondered if Kenma would pick up on his sudden change in attitude. Hopefully not, but the guy was fairly aware of that kind of stuff.

“Kenma!” Hinata waved to his dual hair-colored friend, who had been waiting outside of the gym doors. “What are you doing out here?”

“Waiting for you, seeing how you might have gotten lost,” Kenma was quick with the truth. He would also always say it with a straight face so Hinata couldn’t tell whether or not Kenma was joking. Golly, the sarcasm hits. “Come on, you’re about two minutes from being late.”

“Thank you again for letting me come over,” Hinata jogged up to Kenma’s side as the setter opened the gym doors. “I’m surprised your coach was okay with it after how late I messaged you last night.”

“Coach doesn’t really care about a lot of things these days,” Kenma admitted, still with a straight face. “And besides, you’re from Karasuno. He’d love to “steal you guys”, or whatever he was muttering about.”

“That’s.... Lovely?”

\--

Practice was like any other practice. Passing drills for a little, then moved over to hitting and serving. Thankfully, it wasn’t as intense as Shiratorizawa for serves, but it was certainly tiring for the passing. God,  _ passing _ . Nekoma was prone to living up to the “neko” part of their name. 

Quick reflexes, high agility, several other spacial awareness traits. Hinata was somewhat jealous of their talent. But no matter. Karasuno was still strong against them. 

Hinata remembered the little tips and tricks he learned from Bokuto the other day and put them to use. Kenma mentioned how Hinata’s passing was a lot better than the last time he saw him, and that really brought Hinata’s spirits up. The serves, as well, were terrifyingly better. Kenma was surprised to see Hinata jump serve-top spin, no less-and  _ get it over the net _ . 

“Holy shit, chibi-chan,” Kuroo spoke up, whistling at Hinata’s semi-powerful serve. “Where’d you learn that trick?”

“Shiratorizawa,” Hinata wheezed. After trying like. Ten different times, he got it over. “Semi taught me.”

“What were you doing at Shiratorizawa?” Lev walked up to Hinata, covered in sweat from his training with Yaku. 

“Oh you know. Practice.”

“That’s not really an “oh-you-know” sort of statement, but go off,” Kuroo cackled. “Looks like we’ll have to watch out for you the next time we go against Karasuno.”

Hinata’s body froze for a moment, halfway bent over to pick up a ball that rolled over to him. “Y-yeah.. Next time.”

Kenma rose an eyebrow with a suspicious stare, watching how Hinata’s shoulders sagged as he readied himself for another serve. “What’s wrong?”

“Hmm?” Hinata’s voice cracked at that. “Sorry, excuse me.. What? Nothing’s wrong?” at this point, Hinata was trying to believe that nothing was wrong. At some point, he figured, he was starting to.

“Right...” Kenma let out a sigh, lightly kicking Kuroo’s shin. “Come on, stop getting distracted.”

\--

“See you again, Shouyou,” Kenma patted Hinata on the back a couple of times after everyone changed and got ready to leave. 

“Thank you guys for letting me practice with you, again,” Hinata bowed to the members who were still in the changing room. “Goodbye!”

Hinata waved and darted out into the open campus before anyone could say anything about his strange goodbye. Not that saying “goodbye” was strange or anything, but having Hinata say something like that with such sadness in his voice was... Worrying, at the least.

“Damn, he looked rough,” Kuroo whispered to Kenma, the two walking out of the club room together. “Wonder what happened.”

“Maybe someone died,” Kenma offered a reason. “Or he’s moving away?”

“No! Not him! We love having Hinata around!” Lev added, appearing behind the couple with a shocked and terrified look in his eyes. “If he moved, I wouldn’t have a rival!”

“He’s... Not really your rival, Lev,” Kenma whispered soft enough to not let the beanstalk hear him. “The whole team is..”

...

Hinata dropped his belongings onto the floor and ran upstairs, ignoring his mother and sister calling him worriedly. Locking the door and flopping onto his bed, all he could do was cry. Tomorrow was Aoba Johsai, and after that... It was just six feet underground and a shit bomb of tears. 

He wouldn’t see anyone again after tomorrow. He would be alone in eternal darkness without anyone to comfort him. Hinata would have to say goodbye to everyone without them even knowing why. He couldn’t tell anyone anything, so he had no one to be there for him. The only thing he could do was sob miserably by himself and hope to say his final goodbyes without breaking down. However, he’s already failed this on multiple occasions. 

“Aoba Johsai,” Hinata muttered into his pillow. “I’ll see Oikawa again tomorrow...”

Maybe he could try and tell Oikawa again. After all, they still had that silly bet from when they went to that cafe together. He had to tell him or his spirit would freak out and probably haunt something. Or whatever happens in the afterlife. It’s not like Hinata would know, but he would soon.

Just then, Hinata’s phone vibrated from his bag. He thought about leaving it be, but after a couple more notes from his phone, he got up and took it out to read whatever the hell someone sent him.

“ _ See you tomorrow, Hina-chan ( ◞･౪･)!” _

_ “I can’t wait to send some tosses to you （‐＾▽＾‐）!” _

_ “They’ll be totally better than what Tobio-chan could ever set to you ┗(｀皿´)┛!” _

_ “Bye bye for now, Hina-chan! And if you haven’t confessed your undying feelings yet, I’ll be super mad ヾ(o｀ε´o)ﾉ!” _

And even more tears than before fought their way out of Hinata’s eyes and onto the ground, some landing on the luminated screen of his phone. Hinata never wanted to see someone so badly, but all he could do was wait. Tomorrow, he promised himself, he would tell Oikawa how he felt, even if his nerves and anxiety told him not to. He was going to tell him before the day was over. He had to. He had to.

“ _ See you, Oikawa! And just you wait, I’m going to tell them sooner than you might expect!”  _

Ping.

“ _ Challenge accepted, Hina-chan (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑ !” _

Yeah. He had to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OWO almost finished! I'll work on chapter 7, but don't expect it to come out for a bit. Still mucking over emotions right now so I'm not rushing work. Thanks for understanding! I love each and every one of you <3
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	7. 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final day

Everything seemed to ache a little bit more than it did the previous night. Hinata’s hands hurt, as well as his legs and shoulders. Why everything hurt was beyond his knowledge, but it likely correlated with his upcoming death. 

At midnight, Hinata Shouyou would stop breathing. It was a terrifying thought to ponder on, especially if you knew it would happen years in advanced. 

He never paid much mind to the tiny counter in the back of his head. “I have a lot of time!” he’d tell himself, unaware of how quickly that time would leave. He thought he’d at least make it to twenty, but now that he’s sixteen and four years away from his original thought - not to mention he’s going to die this evening - Hinata called himself an idiot for not doing what he’d wanted to do earlier. He should have travelled a bit; should have tried new foods. Should have played against his rival teams again; should have got to nationals. 

“Shouyou!” his mother snapped Hinata out of his daze. “Breakfast! You’ll be late for your practice! You’re going somewhere different today, right?”

Today was Aoba Johsai. “Right! Coming!”

Hinata finished breakfast quickly, running back upstairs and took his bag off the door handle where he’d left it. He kissed his mother and sister goodbye, which was rare and caught the two women off guard. Hinata never kissed them when he left. But Hinata knew, this was the last time he would ever see them. This was the last time his family would hear him speak, or look at them with the sun in his eyes.

“Have fun, dear!” his mother watched Hinata speed off to the train station, a glimpse of worry glossing over her eyes.

\--

Aoba Johsai wasn’t too terribly far away, Hinata came to realize. Yeah, it was far, but it wasn’t as bad as Fukurodani or Inarizaki (if he ever went). He got off the train and ran to the high school, hoping he was at least relatively on time; maybe a couple of minutes. 

After about ten minutes of sprinting and asking around for directions, Hinata made it to the campus. It was a nice school. Super clean, super bright. What you’d expect from a powerhouse. 

“Hey! You made it!” someone shouted, poking their head out a set of grey doors. “Yo! Hinata! Over here!”

Hinata whipped his head around and found Iwaizumi waving at him. A smile crept around Hinata’s mouth as he ran over to the gym doors, greeting and thanking Iwaizumi for the assistance.

“Shittykawa has been yapping away all week about you,” Iwaizumi stated, closing the doors behind the ginger. “I don’t know what you did, but he’s excited-”

“HINA-CHAN!” Oikawa’s voice carried all the way across the gym, the sound of heavy footsteps gaining speed. “You made it!”

“Of course I did!” Hinata felt Oikawa lift him into the air in a tight embrace, almost breaking his back too. Did he expect this? Absolutely  _ not _ . “U-uh...”

“I’ve been telling everyone about your unexpected proposal! What made you want to come practice with us?” Oikawa asked, still holding Hinata about a foot off the ground. “Did you finally transfer over? Are you leaving that Tobio-chan to come play with us? Did you realize I’m the better setter?”

Iwaizumi smacked the back of Oikawa’s head, the brunette dropping Hinata back onto his feet. Hinata would be lying if his face wasn’t bright red and hot as shit. “You need to learn to control yourself, Shittykawa. God, you almost killed him. He can’t play volleyball with us if he’s  _ dead _ , you moron.”

Well, he was right. Unless you’re somehow reanimated, there’s no way you could do anything. Hinata rubbed the space above his heart, the aching sending tremors down his spine. 

“Change in the club room and we’ll start on warm ups,” Iwaizumi pointed to the back door, dragging Oikawa away from Hinata and into the middle of the gym. “Control your fucking emotions, Shittykawa.”

Hinata didn’t hear the rest of their argument, besides the face that Oikawa burst into flames and curled into a ball on the floor. He was probably embarrassed from something. Iwaizumi noticed Hinata’s gaze and gestured to Oikawa with a disgusted look in his eyes. Hinata snorted, making his way out of the gym.

“If you want to get some from the fucking crow, just ask him!” Matsukawa looked at his captain from over Hanamaki’s shoulders, a smug smirk plastered on both their faces. “I doubt he’d object!”

“Stop embarrassing me further than Iwa-chan already did!” Oikawa groaned, falling onto his back with his hands still covering his face. “Please! Spare me! I’ve already messed up enough!”

“Oh no,” Hanamaki snorted. “We’re going to hold this over your head for weeks.”

\--

Hinata came back from the club room to a bunch of volleyballs flying at people. There were people screaming, there were people laughing, and Hinata could probably guess they’d already disposed of the dead bodies. Hanamaki and Matsukawa were... gone. Uh oh?

Oikawa, mid throw, turned his head to the blob of orange and smiled, jogging over to him like a puppy runs to its owner. “Hina-ch-”

Suddenly, a ball was shot at the back of Oikawa’s head, the unfortunate brunette toppling over on top of the crow. Both hit their heads fairly hard on the gym floor, the sound of the impact echoing against the walls. 

“OI!” Iwaizumi shouted as Oikawa hastily picked himself back up. “FUCK THE KID LATER, WOULD YOU?! NASTY PRICK!”

Hinata’s face flushed bright red as he, too, picked himself off the ground. Oikawa had disappeared to fight off Iwaizumi - and likely to hide the growing blush on his face. “Uh... Guys...? Are we going to practice, or..?”

“Nope,” Watari appeared next to the ginger and smiled, handing him a couple of volleyballs. “I think we’re just going to screw around for today.”

Hinata couldn’t help but smile. At least his last day would be filled with fun, pointless arguments and games. He could live with that. Hinata cleared his throat and thanked Watari for the balls, quickly scoping out possible targets. He might at well hit Oikawa, you know, for landing on top of him. His head still hurt too. 

He scurried over to Oikawa - far enough away that he wouldn’t be seen - and chucked one of the balls he had in his hands as hard as he could at Oikawa’s back. Not only did it scare the ever living shit out of the brunette, but he was also knocked onto the ground. Again.

“HEY!” Oikawa whipped his head around and glared at Hinata, who was whistling it off like he didn’t do it. “You’re on  _ my side, _ aren’t you?”

“Depends,” Hinata smirked. “You did fall on top of me.”

Oikawa choked, covering his face with the back of his hand. “It was an accident! Blame Iwa-chan! Not me!”

Hinata shrugged. “You’re still the one who fell on me.”

“More like fell  _ for _ you,” Kindaichi whispered to Kunimi, the two first years holding back a laugh. 

“Hey uh, where’s Matsukawa and Hanamaki?” Hinata ended up asking, covering his red-tinted face with a volleyball. 

“Oh, I ended up killing them,” Oikawa said with a straight face. “They’re in the closet.”

“I can’t tell if you’re joking or not, Oikawa.”

Oikawa and Hinata ended up bickering for a while, leaving the rest of the team to watch them. Iwaizumi rolled his eyes and made everyone clean up the mess they’ve made and actually start on drills. But Iwaizumi gave in to the pleading eyes of the third years - who consistently get on his nerves - who’d asked about having a game day. 

“Oi! You old married couple over there!” Matsukawa was brought back out from the closet, Hanamaki as well. The latter had to be dragged out since he was still unconscious. “Thanks for almost killing me and Makki! Now come on! Get a room, but not right now!”

The two burst into flames, both running away from each other to help clean the rest of their mess up.

Iwaizumi approached Hanamaki and slapped him awake, patting Matsukawa’s shoulder a couple of times with a sigh. “They’re so fucking oblivious.”

\--

“That wraps up practice!” Iwaizumi clapped his hands, sending everyone over to the club room to change. He turned to Hinata, who was still in wonderland after such an... interesting practice. “Sorry about today. If it wasn’t what you were thinking, that is. Sometimes we need to have a break, you know?”

“I understand. It was so fun!” Hinata giggled, flashing Iwaizumi a whole-hearted smile. The vice captain squinted. “I loved it!”

“Glad you enjoyed our practice, Hina-chan!” Oikawa butted in, situating himself next to the ginger. 

“Hey, Oikawa,” Hinata cleared his throat, holding back the flush that dared embarrass him. “You wanna hang out later? Today, if possible.”

“And this is where I show myself out,” Iwaizumi mocked a bow and smirked, patting Oikawa on the shoulder before leaving the two love birds alone. “Good luck, Shittykawa.”

“Uh... What? Today? Y-yeah, maybe,” Hinata could almost see the lightbulb go off above Oikawa’s head. “Yeah! Actually, today works! When do you want to meet up?”

“Maybe.. Maybe like, one? Two? Around the same time we met last time,” Hinata smiled. He’d finally get a chance to tell Oikawa how he felt. Strangely, Hinata felt confident. “Just spend the rest of the day messing around, you know? Let’s not have a set place to go to, and just.. Explore.”

“That sounds like fun, Hina-chan,” Oikawa’s excitedness melted into fondness, eyes softening just from staring at Hinata. “Where should we meet?”

“Same place as last time?”

“Same place as last time.” Oikawa repeated.

...

Hinata rushed home and jumped straight into the shower, scrubbing himself down and shot himself out of the bathroom and into his room. His confidence today had been doubled - he had no idea why, though - and he wanted today to be the best day of his life. Well, seeing how it would be his last day, Hinata wanted to go out flamboyantly. Maybe not crazily, but he wanted to go out knowing he told Oikawa how he felt.

“I’m going out with a friend again!” Hinata shouted, grabbing a nice pair of black slip ons from his closet. 

“Do you need some cash?” his mother asked back.

“No! I think I have enough left overs from last time I went out,” Hinata sat down in front of the door and put on his shoes, checking his bag for the money he’d kept from previous outings. “I’ll be back!”

Hinata froze at the words, his cheerful smile twitching. No, he wouldn’t be back. The next time his mother would see him would be at his funeral. 

“Have fun, Shouyou!”

Hinata ran back into the living room where his mother and sister were sitting. He engulfed the two in a warm, firm embrace. This surprised them, for lack of better words. They returned the hug and after a minute, Hinata let go. “Bye!”

“Bye...?” Natsu watched as Hinata walked outside and practically ran down the sidewalk to god knows where. She and her mother shared a confused glance, but dismissed it after a quick sigh. 

Hinata arrived to their meet up location a lot sooner than he thought he would. He ended up sitting outside of the cafe for a couple of minutes before he noticed Oikawa walking up to him. They shared a smile and Hinata hopped over to his side. They wouldn’t be going into the cafe today. 

“So,” Oikawa prompted. “What exactly are we exploring?”

“Just.. ‘Round town?” Hinata shrugged, his voice slightly higher nearing the end of his sentence. “This wasn’t well thought out, okay? I just wanted an excuse to spend time with you.”

Oikawa flushed, dumbfounded. But his shocked face shifted into a smug grin, elbow nudging the ginger to hide his sudden blush. “If you wanted to go on more dates with me, I would take you out every single day.”

“Oh no no no no no,” Hinata stuttered, face equally as red as Oikawa’s. “I- A date? Every day? No.. Uh.. No that would get boring... And I wouldn’t want to waste you time! And.. All that...”

“But you never denied wanting to go on more dates with me,” Oikawa leaned down and whispered into Hinata’s ear, making the first year blush harder than he already was. “Wow, you’re very quickly turning into a tomato.”

“It’s your fault!” Hinata countered, hiding his face behind his hands. “You and your...  _ Oikawa _ -ness.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you,” Oikawa chuckled. “So.. We should start exploring.”

“R-right...!” Hinata squeaked, mentally smacking himself for sounding so stupid. Oikawa didn’t seem to mind, though. “Uh... let’s just start wandering?”

“This is a very interesting date, Hina-chan,” Oikawa commented with a smile. “I’m already loving it, though.”

Hinata smiled too, eyes immediately shooting up and directed to a sports shop about a half a block down. “Hey! A sports store!” 

Hinata grabbed Oikawa’s hand and dragged the brunette along, unaware of the stuttering mess he’d turned Oikawa into. When the two stopped in front of the shop, Hinata forgot to let go of Oikawa’s hand, pushing open the doors and dragged his date through. Not that Oikawa was complaining, of course.

“I’ve been in the need of new kneepads for about a good week now,” Hinata continued pulling Oikawa along, the brunette completely amused. The ginger stopped in front of the rack of kneepads and took a pair down, his other hand still occupied with Oikawa’s hand. 

Hinata’s smile dropped for a second; he wouldn’t need to use the new pair. He’d be dead before he got the chance to use them. “Ah... On second thought, I think I might have an unused pair in my closet.” he quickly lied and rehung the pair of kneepads. “Come on, there are other stores we could look at!”

“Mhm.. Yeah, Hina-chan,” Oikawa nodded. He wasn’t about to tell Hinata how he completely forgot about holding onto Oikawa’s hand. Or maybe he didn’t forget? And he was doing this purposefully? Oikawa would never know. “Where to next?”

“Hmm.... Maybe.. Maybe just some stationary store?” Hinata shrugged, hiding a giggle behind his free hand. “Just kinda walk into a store that catches either of our eyes, I guess.”

“Well, lead the way,” Oikawa smiled, lifting their connected hands so Hinata could see. Okay, maybe he  _ was  _ going to bring it up, but only to tease Hinata. “As you can see, I’m currently latched onto you, so it’s not like I can really deny you.”

Without a hint of embarrassment, Hinata nodded. “Duh.” yeah, the kid knew exactly what he was doing. 

“Oh well that didn’t work,” Oikawa laughed as the two exited the shop. “I was going to mess with you for a bit about this.”

“I realized I forgot to let go of you when I opened the doors to the shop,” Hinata explained. “I calmed myself down and just kind kept going. I mean, You don’t seem to be bothered by it... Right? You’re not bothered, are you?” Hinata’s confidence quickly flatlined. 

“Oh no no! I’m delighted,” Oikawa reassured him. “I’ve been wanting to hold your hand for god knows how long.”

“Like.... B-before the date?” Hinata gulped.

“You admit this is a date?” Oikawa smirked. “And yes, way before today.”

“I meant it to be a date from the get go,” Hinata’s voice was hushed now, likely saving him the teases from the older man. “I just didn’t want to get my hopes up? Maybe?”

“I hope you know I’ve been dying to ask you out for a while. When we agreed to meet up the first time, I almost died trying to get ready,” Oikawa admitted. They walked down the street, hands still linked, and voiced their feelings to each other. “You have no idea how flustered I was trying to wear something good enough.”

“Me too! I wanted to look nice the first time so I wouldn’t mess anything up,” Hinata laughed, Oikawa as well. 

“We’re just a pair of dorks, huh? Don’t tell Iwa-chan, but I do admit I’m a dork,” Oikawa stuck out his tongue playfully after pressing his finger gently against his lips. 

“Well, I’m not as space-obsessed as you, but I’ll admit the same.”

“Hey! Space is a great thing to nerd about! Did you know that a day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus?”

And so, Oikawa went on about space facts for a good half hour as the two walked around the city. Hinata wasn’t going to complain though, because he was interested in what Oikawa liked. He wanted to know what got him obsessed about space, and he wanted to know just how far his love for it went. He wanted to share his interest, too. 

He took in all the silly little facts Oikawa rambled on about to heart and smiled the entire time. Oikawa’s eyes lit up every time he would drift off to the topic of aliens or the idea of life outside of Earth. He’d then move on to astrology, and talk about how Greek and Roman gods and goddesses made up a lot of constellations. Not to mention old tales and legends that space consisted of. 

“And that’s only the  _ surface _ , Hina-chan,” Oikawa finished. 

“You’re very serious about the topic,” Hinata laughed, squeezing Oikawa’s hand a little tighter. “It’s good to see you liking something else besides volleyball.”

“Hey!” Oikawa protested. “You have no room to talk! I’m shocked  _ you  _ like anything other than volleyball. That’s the only thing on your mind!”

“No!” Hinata shot back, the two melting into smiles. “Not at all!”

“Sure, sure, you tell yourself that, Hina-chan,” Oikawa chuckled. The brunette took out his phone and checked the time, “five-fifteen” flashing back in white. “Oh holy- We’ve been walking around for the past four hours....”

“You want to get something to eat?” Hinata suggested. “There’s gotta be something good around here.”

“Speaking of which...”

The two looked around at where they were. Nothing they saw sparked any sort of memory of the first place they’d met up. “I think we’re lost.”

“Well shit,” Oikawa bellowed over in laughter, holding his stomach with his free hand. “I guess we were so enraptured in space that we sorta lost track of where we were.”

“I’m blaming you if we can’t get back home,” Hinata joked. Well.. It’s not like he could get back home to begin with. 

“Maybe... There’s something around here?” Oikawa whispered to himself as the two walked around a corner. Bright red lights flickered in Oikawa’s face, an open sign flipped for their convenience. “Woo! Yes!”

Hinata forced a smile to hide the overwhelming emotions he was experiencing at that moment. All the confidence he had earlier in the morning vanished completely, leaving the ginger a terrified mess. “Hina-chan? Are you okay?” of course Oikawa would notice the trembling and averted gaze. Not to mention the constipated look in Hinata’s face.

“Ah... Uh, yeah..” Hinata reassured, not really sure who he was trying to please at this point.

“No, don’t tell me that,” Oikawa pouted, pulling Hinata and himself out of the way of other pedestrians. “Is something wrong? You can tell me, don’t worry.”

“I.. It’s just that, uh..” Hinata tried to hold back tears that suddenly made his eyesight blurry. He looked down at the pavement to spare him the embarrassment of crying in front of Oikawa. Not really doing much, though, but it was worth the try. “It’s nothing...”

“It doesn’t look like “nothing”, Hina-chan,” Oikawa pressed further, letting go of Hinata’s hand for the first time in hours. He immediately went back to holding the boy, but this time, in his arms. “If you need to get something off your chest, don’t hesitate to talk to me, okay?”

All Hinata could do was nod. He forced his arms up from his sides and held onto Oikawa tightly, balling his fists against the setter’s back. He didn’t care about the stares the two probably received; the whispers from people who didn’t know how to mind their own business. 

“Hinata,” Oikawa said, earning a shocked twitch from the shorter boy. Oikawa smiled a little. “Do you want to go sit down someplace? Eat something later? I don’t mind, really.”

Hinata nodded. “I’m sorry.”

“Oi, don’t say that, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Oh, no, that’s not why I’m apologizing...”

“Hinata if you got snot on my shirt I’m going to start crying too.”

“No no no!” Oikawa felt Hinata’s muffled laughter against his chest. He was doing something right, in the sense of cheering the ginger up. “Not at all.. Just.. Just tear stains.”

“I can handle tear stains, Hinata,” Oikawa chuckled, running his right hand against the back of Hinata’s head. He rested his chin gently on top of Hinata’s curls and sighed, not realizing how soft the boy’s hair would be. “Just not snot.”

“Shut up. Maybe I’ll purposely blow my nose on you.”

“Yeah no this is when we stop so I can save my poor shirt,” Oikawa pushed Hinata off of him, but the shorter boy didn’t mind. All they could do was laugh. “I’m glad you’re feeling a little better. Do you still want to go somewhere else? To sit and chill.”

“If you don’t mind,” Hinata muttered as he wiped away the last couple of tears off his face. 

Oikawa brushed his hand against Hinata’s cheek and took the job of wiping Hinata’s tears away, not realizing he really only wanted to hold the boy’s face. Hinata smiled and leaned into the brunette’s touch, sniffling a little bit before leaning away. 

“You’re adorable, I hope you realize that,” Oikawa commented, holding out his other hand for Hinata to hold again. “Even though you look horrible when you cry. Not all people look gorgeous when they’re all tearful.”

“And you look any better?” Hinata sniffled again. “Please, you probably look ten times worse.”

“Mean! I’m hurt! I swear, you’re secretly asking Iwa-chan to mentor you on insulting me,” Oikawa pouted, lightly swinging their hands. 

“Maybe I am.”

“That’s even worse! I didn’t mean for it to be true!!!”

\--

“So...” Oikawa started, returning to Hinata’s side with a cold can of soda. The ginger had found a closed off location a couple of blocks away from where they were previously. It had some stairs that no one seemed to go on, so he opted for those. “Are you okay to talk now, or do you need more time?”

“Nn..” Hinata shook his head, popping the soda tab open. He took a quick sip - it was tea, not soda, he realized - and sighed, shakily holding onto the can in his hands. “I can talk..” it didn’t matter if he told him today or not, he was still going to die within the next seven hours.

Oikawa sat down and opened his can of coffee, chugging about half of it before setting it down next to him. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Hinata sighed, setting his can down on the stair he was seated on, taking Oikawa’s hand in his. They were both cold from the cans, but they didn’t really care. “Please.. Don’t freak out or anything. Don’t stand up, don’t shout... Just hear me out.”

“You make it sound like the world is ending, Hina-chan,” Oikawa joked, hoping to lighten the mood. He failed.

“Don’t make any jokes either,” Hinata replied, resting his forehead on Oikawa’s hand. “Please..”

Oikawa gulped, but nodded. “Okay.”

Hinata sighed again. A long, awkward silence broke out between the two as Hinata prepared himself to open up to Oikawa. “I’m dying.”

“WHA-” Hinata quickly cut Oikawa off before he could finish whatever the brunette was thinking. Hinata looked into Oikawa’s eyes sorrowfully, shaking his head a couple of times. “R...Right, sorry..”

“Thank you,” the ginger whispered weakly. “I’m dying, yes... I have known this for years now.. It’s just.. It’s just that, this week is going to be my last week. The reason why I wanted to practice with you and your team, and to ask you out and even today.. Is because I’ll never see any of you again.

“I spent my Sunday with my team and we all went out for lunch. I met up with the Miya twins before that, though; same day. I went to see Shiratorizawa on Saturday and spent the morning practice with them. I went to Fukurodani on Monday, and Nekoma on Wednesday.. I spent all of Tuesday with my family because... Because I wouldn’t get the chance to.”

“And today...” Oikawa whispered.

“And today, I spent it with Aoba Johsai,” Hinata looked up from Oikawa hand, forcing a smile on his face. His lungs felt like they were on fire, his eyes filled with tears within seconds of looking up at Oikawa. “And with  _ you _ .”

“I wouldn’t take any of it back, though,” Hinata continued with a sniffle, feeling Oikawa’s hand tighten around his own. “I wanted to see everyone off before... Whatever kills me... I don’t actually know what’s happening to me; all I know is that I’m going to die.”

“Did you tell anyone about this?”

“No.. This is the first time I’ve opened up about it.. I had a feeling - a  _ strong  _ feeling - that if I did tell someone, I’d die a lot sooner than I’d want.”

“So.. What happens, now that you’ve told me.”

“I have no idea.”

They were quiet. Hinata snorted, wiping a stray tear off his face. “You’re taking this shockingly well.”

“You told me not to freak out,” Oikawa countered, wrapping his arm around Hinata. He rested his chin on top of the younger boy’s head, taking his other arm - and removing his hand from Hinata’s - and wrapped it around the rest of Hinata’s body. “I’m trying extremely hard here... I just want to scream right now. Why didn’t you tell me? But you gave me a reason, so.. I can’t just go off on that.. And you’re probably already dealing with so much that if I added to that, you’d feel a lot worse.”

“I understand,” Hinata whispered, pressing his forehead against Oikawa’s chest. “Uhm.. Also.. I should probably tell you something else..”

“Please tell me it’s good news.”

“It is,” Hinata swallowed, pushing himself back so he could look Oikawa in the eyes. “I love you.”

Oikawa’s lower lip quivered, his hands falling from Hinata’s back and to the boy’s biceps. The brunette smiled at him, thumbs rubbing back and forth on the boy’s clothing. “I love you too, Hinata. The hand holding was certainly a big signal and I wasn’t sure if you actually got it. You know, your head is full of volleyball nonsense.”

Hinata laughed. “You’re no better! I thought we had this discussion earlier?”

“Yeah yeah, but still,” Oikawa and Hinata laughed, but it died quickly. Oikawa moved his hands up to Hinata’s face and caressed his cheeks, wiping off the tears from his face. “Can I...?”

“I’d never say no,” Hinata whispered back, closing his eyes.

Oikawa took note of the tears that hung from Hinata’s eyelashes. The boy’s reddened cheeks and puffy eyelids. Oikawa brushed his thumb underneath Hinata’s eye and smiled, leaning closer to him and closing off the space between them. 

Their kiss was soft and long. Neither of them really had any experience with kissing, so it was sort of.. Awkward. But they didn’t mind. It was filled with love and they enjoyed it. Oikawa was first to pull away, Hinata still frozen in place and eyes were still closed. 

“I’d never imagined kissing you, you know,” Hinata chuckled, hands gently placed on top of Oikawa’s - they were still on Hinata’s face. 

“I’ve been dying to for ages,” Oikawa admitted, earning another laugh from the ginger. “You know, Hinata-”

“Shouyou.”

“- _ Shouyou- _ ,” Hinata blushed, hearing Oikawa say his name. “-I fell for you right when I first saw you... On that court fighting against me during the training camp. When you hit right next to me, the ball whizzing past my face, I immediately felt my heart swell.”

“I’m probably no better than you then,” Hinata said. “I fell for you the moment you waltzed into the gymnasium. All the girls screaming your name drew my attention to you.”

“I’m not exactly a fan of all my fans,” Oikawa sighed, chuckling slightly. “Some are okay, but others? They’re crazy, I tell you.”

“That’s what you get for having such a pretty face, Oikawa.” Hinata laughed.

“If I get to call you Shouyou, call me Tooru,” Oikawa smiled, pressing his forehead against his boyfriend. Boyfriend? Yeah, they were boyfriends now. “I just want to hear it from you.”

“Tooru,” Hinata said with hesitance, feeling the brunette flinch. It was a good flinch though. “I’m sorry.. For not telling you.. About my limited time or that I loved you sooner.”

“Don’t apologize for things you can’t control,” Oikawa snapped back, kissing the top of Hinata’s forehead. “And I was too afraid to tell you sooner, too. I’m not any better.”

“What are we going to do now? I.. I only have until midnight.”

“This is like some weird version of  _ Cinderella, _ isn’t it?”

“Oh I wish. If I could run away from this, I sure as heckie would.”

“Shouyou, honey, just swear.”

“U-uh.. I.. Impossible.”

Oikawa laughed, throwing his head back and accidentally fell onto his back. He clutched his stomach in pain, cackling away much to Hinata’s confusion. “Come on! You can do it! Please don’t tell me you  _ physically can’t  _ swear.”

“I-! It’s literally  _ way  _ too hard!” Hinata blushed, only making Oikawa laugh harder. “Stop making fun of me! I’ll dump the rest of this drink on you!”

“Say  _ fuck _ , Shouyou, please!” Oikawa wiped away one of the tears that fell down his face from laughing too hard, Hinata freezing up next to him. “Come on, it can’t be that hard.. It’s just a word, you’re not going to hurt anybody unless they take it too seriously.”

“Yeah yeah... “Words only hurt people when they let the words hurt them”, my mother tells me this,” Hinata sighed, pressing his palms against his forehead. “Don’t act like my mom..”

“Say something bad, Shouyou. You gotta. You’re not going to last long enough not to,” Oikawa said, Hinata flinching. “Should... Should I not make jokes about that...?”

“No, go for it. I think it’s good for me to think about it in a fun, silly way at this point,” Hinata said with a smile. “I’m going to say that... bad word now.”

“I’m cheering you on, Shouyou!” Oikawa waited patiently, hearing a small mumble come from his partner. “What? I didn’t hear you.”

“Ffff,” Hinata tried again, clearly terrified and sweating. “F...Fu-”

“You got this!”

“ _ Fuck _ ,” Hinata said, and Oikawa practically screamed. The older boy got up onto his feet and pumped his fists into the air, laughing and congratulating Hinata with smiles. “Is it really that important?”

“Holy shit, yes it is!” Oikawa wheezed. “I’ve never heard you swear before, and come on. “Heckie”? You can to ten times better than that.”

“I don’t like swearing! It’s bad!” Hinata argued. “Are we just going to mess around all evening?”

“Unless you have any other thoughts. I mean, this date is entirely messing around,” Oikawa said. “We still need to eat. We should also do a bunch of things that you haven’t been able to do! You have to have a bucket list of some kind. I want to be there to do those dangerous things with you~.”

“Don’t make it sound like I want to go to bed with you,” Hinata cringed. “I’ve never been into that stuff.”

“I was never implying that. I hate it too, it’s kinda... Gross.” Oikawa also cringed. “I don’t understand the people who like doing it. Like, you go you, but don’t talk about it like it’s some new, wonderful religion.”

“Thank you! Everyone’s so.. So  _ horny _ ! It’s gross! Don’t talk to be about your experiences in bed! I don’t want to know!!” Hinata laughed through his frustration, pointing his hands down at nothing. 

“Oh my god, yes! I fully agree with you,” Oikawa nodded along. “I think it’s good that people are doing the things that they want, but don’t drag me into it. People think I’m some sort of sex god since like... I’m  _ me _ , but no thank you. I plan on keeping my parts out of dark, weird holes.”

“ _ That made this whole conversation worse, Tooru _ ,” Hinata wheezed. “Don’t ever describe women’s or men’s private parts like that again.”

“Right right, sorry,” Oikawa sighed. “How would you like me to describe them from now on?”

“Just say “privates”, for chips and salsa’s sake,” Hinata shook his head. He took out his phone and looked at the time, scrunching his eyes with displeasure. “It’s.. It’s seven o’clock... I only have five hours left.”

Oikawa also scrunched his eyes, taking a seat next to Hinata again. He didn’t finish the rest of his coffee, watching a bug fly into it and probably drown in it. Yeah, he was most definitely not finishing it now. “We could go around and find things you want to do. Spend it on random, useless things.”

Hinata’s stomach rumbled. “Or get food...”

“Or get food, yes,” Oikawa repeated, taking out his wallet. “What are you in the mood for?”

“Anything, as long as it fills my stomach,” Hinata groaned, standing up from the concrete stair. His behind hurt now. 

“Whatever your majesty wishes, I will grant it,” Oikawa knelt mockingly, taking Hinata’s hand in his and kissing his knuckles. Hinata stuttered, flushed to high heavens and completely shocked. “Come on! Let’s get some food!”

\--

“I’m still surprised you’re taking this well,” Hinata muttered after receiving his food. They ended up going to a sushi bar not too far from where they were. “I mean, if I were you, I’d probably be sobbing and freaking out right around now.”

“You told me not to, so I’m doing my best on your behalf,” Oikawa replied, holding onto Hinata’s hand again. “I told you earlier that I didn’t want to put more pressure on you, since you’re going through so much right now.”

“But you’re allowed to be upset too,” Hinata shoved a tuna sushi roll into his mouth, chewing quickly before taking a sip of water. “Take your feelings into account, not just mine.”

“I want to cry, Shouyou, but we’re in a restaurant,” Oikawa whispered jokingly, Hinata lightly kicking his shin. “I know I should be sad and probably go crazy since I didn’t know any of this, but... I don’t think you deserve that right now. You deserve to enjoy your last couple of hours, and I really hope you enjoyed your last week-”

“I did..”

“-with all of us.” Oikawa finished. Well, he wasn’t necessarily done. “After the sushi, I want to be with you and we can do whatever the hell you want to do, honestly. If you want to steal? I’ll help you. Yeah we might go to jail, but that’s not your problem. If you want to just go watch the sun set and stargaze? I’ll do it with you. You shouldn’t be alone right now, that wouldn’t be right.”

“You complained about crying in here, but I’m so close to bursting,” Hinata whimpered, setting down his pair of chopsticks and covered his eyes. “You’re taking this too calmly.”

“I’m trying to,” Oikawa replied. His eyes began to water, but were quickly dried as he comforted Hinata. “I’m really trying to.”

\--

“So this is all you want to do?” Oikawa asked again, gesturing to an open field. “Lay in a field? I said I’d do it with you, but I figured you would want to do something different.”

“I’ve already said goodbye to everyone, and.. I don’t think I’d be able to see everyone. It’s already nine o’clock,” Hinata answered, squeezing Oikawa’s hand. “I’d like to spend the rest of the evening with you.”

“Just so you know,” Oikawa smiled, the two sitting down a couple yards into the field. “I’m going to cry. And also point out all of the constellations I can find. And then more space facts with crying.”

“I’ll probably cry with you,” Hinata chuckled. He and Oikawa laid back, their hands still intertwined. “The only one I know is the Big Dipper and Orion.”

“Oh those are just the basics; newbie stuff,” Oikawa teased. “Okay, so you’ve found the Big Dipper, right? It’s right over there.”

Oikawa pointed to the right of the sky, right where the Big Dipper sat. “You already know that, but the Big Dipper is apart of the whole constellation of Ursa Major. It’s a bear. The bottom left star from the “handle” is where the back leg goes for the constellation. And then if you look to the right from the back leg, you can see two stars relatively close to each other.”

“I see it!” Hinata exclaimed, pointing to where Oikawa was explaining. 

“Good! Now, if you look at the top right star of the Big Dipper, you can find the head. About north-east a bit is another star, and then there are two more that go down in a sort of diagonal line. Then you look up a bit from that final third star and then it goes down again. You can find another two stars for the front leg too.”

“That’s so cool...”

“I know right?” Oikawa chuckled. “And then.. If I can find it, I don’t know if it’s out tonight.. Ah! No, there it is!”

“Where, where?” Hinata was clearly excited.

“Okay, it’s close to Orion,” Oikawa pointed slightly above the constellation’s arm (the bow of the constellation). “You’ll see a V shape. They’re somewhat bright, somewhat dark stars, so it’s kind of hard to find the entire constellation. That’s Taurus, the zodiac bull thing.”

“I see that one too!” Hinata smiled wide, eyes bright with excitement. “That’s even cooler! I should have learned about constellations sooner.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying this,” Oikawa stared at Hinata with a tender look in his eyes. “Not many people like listening to me go off about space.”

“Then they all suck,” Hinata replied bluntly. “If they don’t appreciate your hobbies and interests, they suck.”

“You’re hilarious,” Oikawa squeezed Hinata’s hand. “Thank you.”

“Tell me more about constellations!!” Hinata begged.

Oikawa couldn’t deny that. Not only would he be able to nerd out about it all, but it was because he promised Hinata he would do anything the ginger wanted. And he loved him, too. 

The two talked about constellations for god knows how long. Hinata found all of the ones Oikawa was able to locate, and they joked about making their own. To the north west of Orion’s other hand was the constellation Gemini. A little ways away from the constellation were two, three rows of stars. Above the left-middle star of the two rows was another star a bit above it. To the stars on the left row are a couple that go downward. 

“It should be a bird,” Hinata offered, imagining the bird’s wings out of the two rows of stars. “Totally a bird.”

“What kind? A crow? Of course you’d choose a crow. Maybe that should be Karasuno’s constellation?” Oikawa mentioned, gesturing to the sky.

“No,” Hinata refused, shaking his head against the grass. Oikawa raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Maybe a phoenix or cardinal. Both represent some sort of meaning towards life.”

“How poetic,” Oikawa joked. “I agree. Maybe we’ll name it something? What do you want it to be called?” 

“Hmm... You can choose,” Hinata nodded to his decision. “I would like you to name it. I feel like you’d do better than me.”

“Are you sure? This is your constellation.”

“Yeah, but it’s also a joke, just between us,” Hinata rolled up off of the ground, eyes still staring up at the sky. “Our secret constellation.”

“Okay,” Oikawa pushed himself up too, hand still connected to Hinata. “I’ll figure something out. I hope you don’t mind Latin.”

“I don’t even know what Latin is,” Hinata laughed, falling on top of Oikawa and pushed them both back onto the grass. 

“I thought you didn’t like doing the dirty deed,” Oikawa smirked, grabbing Hinata’s waist and pulled him close.

“I don’t, I just wanted to hug you,” Hinata admitted, wrapping his arms around Oikawa. “Don’t think dirty-like. It’s gross.”

“I wasn’t going to do anything, don’t worry,” Oikawa returned the embrace. “It really is kinda gross.”

The laid there for a couple of minutes, listening to each other’s breathing. Hinata focused more on Oikawa’s heartbeat and the steady rise of the latter’s chest. “I think it should be called “Principio finem”.”

“Why do you assume I understand what you just said,” Hinata said, not really much of a question.

“It means “beginning end”, I believe. It’s from the phrase, “At the beginning of the end”. “In principio ad finem” is the Latin version,” Oikawa stated.

“Of course you would know the entire thing,” Hinata sighed, removing his hands from Oikawa’s torso. He pushed himself up slightly, and smiled, kissing Oikawa’s lips tenderly. “It’s perfect.”

“You’re suddenly such a romantic,” Oikawa said as they parted, bringing Hinata’s face to his again. “I don’t mind it.”

\--

_ Three years later _

  
  


Oikawa walked up to a freshly cleaned tombstone. There was an old flower bouquet propped up against the left side, ready to be replaced. Oikawa smiled and took the old bouquet away, setting down the newer one he had brought with him. It was a mix of red roses, pink carnations and red camellias, all neatly adorned with his love. 

“Hey there, Chibi-chan,” Oikawa whispered, taking a seat on the opposite side of the bouquets. “Sorry I haven’t been able to visit lately. College exams were a bitch and I had no time to take a breather.”

Oikawa stopped talking for a moment as if to expect a response. All he did was close his eyes and felt the light, spring breeze brush against his cheeks. “I brought nicer flowers this time. They actually have meanings, you know. I hope you realize that. These ones all correspond with love, Chibi-chan- ah, excuse me, I can already hear you getting annoyed.  _ Shou _ -chan. Maybe you won’t like that one either, I can’t tell.”

Oikawa laughed, laying down in the grass in front of the tombstone to its right. “And guess what? I got a tattoo of our little constellation. It’s on my back, so.. I’m not stripping for you. I was changing the other day after practice and one of my teammates thought the tattoo was something totally different. No, I don’t have any beauty marks on me, I’m already totally beautiful. I just told him that it was a tattoo and that it was very much important. He still didn’t understand. Like, come on. Yeah there are black dots on my back, but jeez! They’re outlined with a phoenix! You have to realize that at least.”

Oikawa laughed again. “Your friends stopped by the other day, I went with them. And by the other day, I mean like, a month ago before exams occurred. Tobio-chan was still a little upset that you never told him  _ three years ago _ , but who am I to get upset over someone else’s grudge? I held one over Tobio-chan for years, I have no right to be angry. This was also the first time... Asahi? Yeah, Asahi, didn’t cry. Who knew such a buff, mature-looking guy could cry so much?”

Silence fell over Oikawa again as he listened for an answer he knew wouldn’t come. “I plan on staying here till the sun goes down. I begged the staff to let me stay here and look at the stars. Yes yes that’s a little weird, shut up!”

People looked at him weirdly, but he paid no mind.

“But come on. How long has it been since we’ve stargazed? I’ve been dying to find our constellation again with you. I’ve been able to find it almost every night, but never beside you,” Oikawa closed his eyes, hearing a couple birds take off from a nearby tree. “Don’t get too excited, I probably won’t be able to do this again. I swear, people need to know that I want to spend time with my boyfriend, dead or alive. Can I not just have that? Like, square up.”

The sun went down a few hours later as Oikawa talked away, still taking breaks to wait for unheard, unspoken answers. Or maybe they were spoken, just not heard. Maybe Hinata was responding to Oikawa, and the brunette just didn’t know. 

About half an hour flew by too, leaving Oikawa to himself in the darkness. He brought a lamp with him so he wouldn’t be in  _ absolute _ darkness; he was also just afraid of being in a cemetery at night. Who knows what lurk around at that point?

“Hey look,” Oikawa said, pointing to the Big Dipper. “There’s the Big Dipper again. Hopefully you can find all of Ursa Major now. If you can’t, then all of my teachings from when we were in the field went to complete waste... And there’s Orion too. I just discovered that people only know the belt of the constellation... That’s a start, at least, but that’s not it, guys! There’s like, a whole entire  _ dude _ .”

“I hope you’re doing well out there,” Oikawa said after a moment, resting his hands on his chest. “Maybe you’re swimming around in space; finding new stars and discovering whether or not aliens are real. Let me tell you, they’re real. We can’t be the only living things out there in this vast universe. Maybe there are parallel worlds, and that’s why we can’t travel there yet. You ever wonder if the stories people write are actually galaxies out there? Like that  _ Harry Potter _ series by that one English writer. For all we know, that could be a whole galaxy out there! If you do discover this, make sure to come back and tell me. If you don’t, I’ll never forgive you.”

Oikawa lifted himself off the ground and brushed off the grass and dirt on his coat. “I’ll see you again later, Shouyou. I’m going to be kicked out sooner or later here, or maybe have some ghost haunt me. Protect me from them, will you? If there are nice ghosts, tell me too, I’d like to say hi. There are several people out here that deserve love.”

The brunette rested his hand on the tombstone, brushing off a dead leaf that drifted its way onto it. “I’ll see you again tomorrow. I’ll tell you if I actually passed those exams too. They were real sticks in the ass, Shouyou. I studied for  _ hours _ and I just completely forgot everything the moment I arrived to class. I wanted to die right there and then.”

“Hey!” someone shouted from afar. “You need to leave!”

“Yup, there we go,” Oikawa chuckled, picking up the lantern from the ground. “Gettin’ kicked out! Bye bye, Shouyou!”

Oikawa ran away from the grave and apologized to the security, explaining that he got permission from the staff - someone named Kazue. The man believed him, thankfully, and let Oikawa off the hook this one time. The guard walked away and continued his job as Oikawa went back to his car, turning it on and driving back to his house. 

Once he arrived home, Oikawa heard a faint tapping from his bedroom. Out of fear of a thief, he took a textbook he’d left on his couch and tip-toed over to his room. It was already cracked open, so all he had to do was push it slightly. 

“Well, that’s unexpected,” Oikawa stated, lowering the book and setting it down on the edge of his bed. A cardinal - red, that is - had gotten in through his window, since he forgot to close it before he left. “Didn’t you also mention something about cardinals? The phoenix was much more memorable, Shouyou.”

Oikawa watched as the bird stared back at him, hopping onto his textbook and tapped at the design on the front - it was a forget-me-not. Who makes the covers of textbooks anyways? They’re all strange. “You need to get out of my apartment before you shit on my things. I’ll fight the gods if I have to, you know.”

He shooed the bird away from his textbook and lured him over to the window, where the bird was now perched on the sill. It looked back at him one more time and flew onto his shoulder, poking at his cheek before flying outside and into the night.

“I feel like that bird just kissed me,” Oikawa laughed, sticking his head out of his window. “How romantic, Shouyou. Yes, I know that was you! Don’t try to fool me!”

“GO TO SLEEP!” someone replied, only making Oikawa laugh harder. “JUST BECAUSE EXAMS ARE OVER DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN FUCKING SHOUT TO THE HIGH HEAVENS!”

“God, okay, I was saying goodbye to my boyfriend,” sighed Oikawa, closing his window and locking it just in case someone tried to sneak in and kill him. “Good night to you too. You know, you’re not any better. I bet you woke up more people than me. Hmph.”

Oikawa settled down for the evening; brushing his teeth and changing into a freshly washed pair of pajamas. He removed the textbook from his bed and set it on his desk, turning off his room light before snuggling himself under his covers. 

He had a whole day to himself tomorrow. He could spend that entire time talking to Hinata, or maybe going out with his friends... He decided, right before falling asleep, that he would just do both. Of course, Oikawa would see Hinata first, though.

“Oh, forget-me-nots,” Oikawa thought to himself, a smile creeping onto his face. “True love and memories, hmm?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to take everyone for so much love and support. I'm sorry about not being able to add the last chapter lately; I've been going through a tough couple of weeks. I'm working on an original story right now that I thought up a couple of days ago, and it really got my mind going for this story. 
> 
> I didn't expect the story to end like this, but ain't that just the way. I kinda messed up the romance parts, but hey. whatever. 
> 
> Again, thank you so much for understanding my situation and staying with me this whole time! Thank you for over 1000 hits and 100 kudos! I love each and every one of you, and I hope you look forward to my next work. I'm going to do an EreRi story; look forward to it! This is a little preview: 
> 
> _When you’re given a bouquet of flowers, what’s the first emotion you experience? More than likely, it’s happiness or thankfulness. Now, however, what if you knew what all the flowers meant? Each individual flower has something it represents, be it love or kindness or playfulness. Some, on the other hand, don’t exactly represent all the lovey-dovey, fluttery feelings people might suspect at first. Yeah, that’s right. Some flowers are assholes, even if they **do** look like the Milky Way._
> 
> Forget-me-nots mean "true love" and "memories"  
> Red roses are, of course, mean "love, I love you"  
> Pink carnations mean "I'll never forget you"  
> And finally, red camellias mean "You're a flame in my heart"
> 
> To find the constellation, use this webcite (https://stellarium-web.org/). Look for the constellation "Gemini". Next to Gemini's leg, you should be able to find this backwards "L" line of stars. Very faintly above them can you see three other stars. Those are the wings of their constellation. There is one star right above the brightest star of the L, that's the head. For the tail, there is another small, bright star a little ways down from the big, bright star of the L. I also have a drawn shot of the constellation on my Twitter if you can't find it!
> 
> Come and say hi!  
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/BigOlOnigiri)
> 
> [Tumblr](https://lonelym00nstone.tumblr.com/)


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